The Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee released its proposed bill text for the budget reconciliation package that would require the sale of at least 2.2 million acres, and as many as 3.3 million acres of national public lands.
The bill requires the Interior secretary and Forest Service chief to identify up to 1,837,500 acres of BLM land and 1,447,500 acres of USFS land for sale, respectively. The land will be made available for sale to local governments and developers through a nomination process, but does not require any consultation with the American people.
The bill text includes no affordability requirement, no maximum lot size, and requires the land be sold at fair market rate. The bill would sell off public lands in every Western state except for Montana.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Executive Director Jennifer Rokala:
“This is a shameless ploy to sell off pristine public lands for trophy homes and gated communities that will do nothing to address the affordable housing shortage in the West.
“Senator Mike Lee should be ashamed of himself for using the housing affordability crisis as an excuse to sell public lands off to private developers. Time and time again, Westerners have made it crystal clear that they want to keep public lands in public hands. Clearly Senator Lee isn’t listening.
“Senator Lee might think he can buy off the support of Montana’s congressional delegation by excluding Montana’s public lands, but these lands belong to every American. Anyone who cares about hiking, hunting, fishing, or camping would lose access to the lands that they rely on for outdoor recreation.”
According to the 2025 Conservation in the West Poll, 82 percent of Western voters prefer building more housing within or close to existing communities near jobs, roads, and transit rather than selling national public lands to develop housing.