Public land sale pitch cut from budget bill

JACKSON — Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, pulled his revised public land sale provision from the U.S. Senate’s budget bill on Saturday night.

Lee voluntarily withdrew the measure because the “strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process” meant that he was unable to guarantee that lands would only be sold to Americans.

“I continue to believe the federal government owns far too much land — land it is mismanaging and in many cases ruining for the next generation,” Lee said in a statement.

Public lands advocates were quick to celebrate the provision’s downfall.

“Senator Lee’s ill-conceived plan to sell off public lands for private profit has backfired in a spectacular fashion,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, said in a statement.

Advocates attributed the withdrawal to the outpouring of opposition to the measure.

“This win belongs to the hunters, anglers and public landowners who stood up and said loud and clear: Our lands are not for sale,” said Patrick Berry, president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

The sale, which was proposed earlier this month, roiled Westerners for weeks and drew opposition from Republican representatives from western states, including Montana Sens. Tim Sheehy and Steve Daines and Idaho Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo.

Wyoming Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis did not come out against the bill.

Lee’s original proposal would have sold between 2 and 3 million acres of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service land in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Wyoming.

The Senate parliamentarian — who advises and interprets the rules of the chamber — found that the provision was extraneous to the budget process and struck it from the bill. Lee vowed to revise the measure.

On Friday, Lee released a new version that excluded Forest Service land and limited sales to within five miles of “population centers” of more than 1,000 people. The bill would have required the sale of at least 600,000 acres and at most 1.2 million acres. The Department of the Interior would have been required to prioritize the disposal of land of the highest value.

In Teton County, BLM parcels 9 and 10, riverfront parcels on the Snake River, still would have been eligible for sale under the proposal.

The changes failed to save the proposal in the court of public opinion.

“Senator Lee just can’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Rokala said in a statement.

Lee acknowledged the chorus of concern in his announcement withdrawing the measure, writing that he spent “a lot of time listening” to stakeholders from across the country.

“While there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases outright lies — about my bill, many people brought forward sincere concerns,” he said.

The overall budget bill, on which President Trump has imposed a July 4 deadline, was still being debated in the Senate at press time Sunday.a