Utah Sen. Mike Lee withdrew his land-sale provision from the Senate reconciliation budget bill Saturday evening.
“I was unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families – not to China, not to Blackrock, and not to any foreign interest,” Lee posted on X. “For that reason, I’ve made the decision to withdraw the federal land sales provision from the bill.”
The Republican had sought to require the sale of Bureau of Land Management property — owned by all Americans — to help Western communities resolve affordable housing worries. Critics said existing laws allow such sales and that the measure violated a core western value — public access to public land.
“Total faceplant.”
Land Tawney
More than one million acres of public land were at stake. The provision required the government to auction the property rapidly and with curtailed public involvement.
Conservationists, hunters and anglers and outdoor recreation businesses erupted in virtual applause after Lee conceded. Opposition across the West stirred thousands to rally in support of continued ownership of and access to their publicly owned property.
“Public lands are the cornerstone of our conservation legacy,” Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited said in a statement heralding the provision’s demise.
Others were less reserved.
“Total faceplant,” wrote Land Tawney, co-chair of American Hunters & Anglers.
“He rewrote his scheme multiple times,” Tawney said of Lee. “And tonight? He yanked his own language from the bill,” Tawney wrote in a statement.
A coalition of outdoor businesses that claims to be part of a $1.2 trillion recreation economy said the budget reconciliation process “was the wrong vehicle for deciding the fate of America’s public lands.
“Selling off public lands in this way was not just out of touch with public sentiment,” the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable coalition said, “it could have impacted businesses, jobs, public health, and the many rural communities that depend on access to outdoor recreation for economic development and quality of life.”
Great news! Keep public lands for the public. The next hard nut to crack is Keep Public Land Accessible by the Public. There is too much public land surrounded by private land, called “land locked”, and inaccessible by the public. A step in the right direction is allowing corner crossing, although recent court decisions to that effect may get reversed if the Supreme Court decides to weigh in. Also something has to be done to the mess flanking the Union Pacific rails across southern Wyoming. An enormous checkerboard of public and private land 20 miles wide and crossing practically the entire state east to west. The only solution I can think of is to manage a reorganization of the area wherein much of the public and private land plots reciprocally change status to develop large contiguous plots of private and public land. Am I dreaming, or what?
Keep an eye on them they will try to sneak the sale of land in another way.
Wow- this is wonderful news. Way to go Wyoming, you are a true testament to how Americans can work together to protect our public land. We want our kids and their kids to experience our beautiful public lands.
A huge win for the average Wyoming and United States citizen. Some think we have too much BLM land it has to be sold off or used for commercial uses. I’d like to remind them that this is Wyoming. We live here to hunt fish camp, snowmobile, ride horses, ski canoe, target practice, and generally to get away from people and we can do that on BLM land. Without all the protests letters, emails phone calls businesses. All getting involved showed our representatives that this is very important to us and they heard us. Great job that everybody got involved that did, and for those who don’t care. didn’t get involved really don’t have no room to shoot their mouth off.
Those of us who value Wyoming’s world class BLM and Forest Service public lands won this battle, but remain vigilant for the war to come. Barrasso, Lummis, and Hageman all stood fast, defending budget bill language that would have sold off lands that are precious to hunters, anglers, hikers, runners, campers, and riders of all stripes.
Not a single pro-land sale comment here. All curiously quiet on that Front.
This action, like the similar attempts that have come before it, will not be forgotten by the people of this state. Farmer, student, fisherman, or otherwise, we will not forget that Barasso, Lummis, and Hageman refused to stand up for public lands and ridiculed opposition to this shoehorned attempt to put a dollar sign on the land which binds all the people of this state on a common rope. Natural beauty is NOT FOR SALE
Hurray! for now.
I hope that it stays out.
According to the NY Times it was the opposition by the 2 Republican Senators from Montana and 2 Republican Senators from Idaho that forced Lee to scuttle the his provision from the bill. Notable for their absence in opposition were Senators Barrasso and Lummis.
lee will be back, we need to be ready.
See ya all got twisted up over nothing
The only reason it is now nothing, is because we all got twisted up. If we had stayed quite on this it would have been pushed though. We held their feet to the fire and they blinked first.
No Lizz your input meant nothing. Truth is some of the land needs sold off. Leased ski resorts for one. Let them go into state property tax base. Coal mine property as well. Nevada is 80% public land. Way too much.
Yes Larry, her input meant everything.
Not nearly enough. All kaputalism will do is “develop” and plunder any land that comes under control of modern robber barons. They, and their supporters, are the ones who should be deported.
fire Lee
Be sure and vote the three clowns back into office so we can keep fighting for OUR lands.
Our elected officials can’t seem to get public lands issues right. For starters, its bull crap that the state of wyoming can do a better job of managing the Federal lands – with the exception of Game and fish and state Parks who do a good job. But look at the dismal record of the 5 elected SLIB members – they were wrong about the Casper True gravel mine leases, they were wrong about the Kelly school section attempted sale, they made a major mistake approving storage units and glamping rentals on state land near Jackson, they were wrong concerning the sale of BLM land they were wrong about the BLM’s purchase of the Marston Ranch property which opened up a huge block of land for public access. I see where Senators from Idaho and Montana aligned themselves correctly and opposed provisions allowing for sale of BLM land in the BBB legislation. However, our entire congressional delegation was on the wrong side of the issue. With a dismal track record like this they try to convince us that the State can do a better job of managing the Federal land in Wyoming!!! Good grief, they openly argue with each other at SLIB meetings – that’s not exactly a confidence builder. It took something like 20,000 signatures to force them to reverse the gravel pit fiasco.
I ask you – where in Wyoming have our SLIB members taken aggressive action to open up large tracts of land for public access?? There have been a number of smaller trades effected but nothing remotely approaching the magnitude of the Marston Ranch purchase. It should be clear that the public demands improved access to the public lands not sale to the highest out of state billionaire. WE have a real serious problem with our elected officials and the Freedom Caucus agenda is further fueling the disconnect with the public.
Screw you Utah Senator Mike Lee, go away and don’t come back and screw the Wyoming DC contingency that were going to sell us out.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. The issue of selling off public lands is not going away. Stay alert and involved.
Great news and good job to all who fought back. Now this coalition of the good guys needs to make sure the politicians backing this sell off never get a chance to try it again.
I urge anyone who was not paying close attention to this reconciliation bill until the subject of public land sell-off activated you into action to not turn away now that the provision has been axed. This reconciliation bill has even more injurious consequences that need your attention. This is the largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the ultra wealthy in U.S. history. This bill will increase deficit spending by $4.5 trillion dollars (if you consider yourself conservative, that alone should make your brain explode). It guts all the programs that politicians said would not be touched; medicaid, medicare, social security, Veterans Affairs, clean air/water/land, food assistance for children – the vile list goes on and on. If the only thing you cared about is your personal access to public lands, I’m glad you won your fight and I stood right there with you. But I implore you to consider not only the millions of Americans that you will never meet that will suffer real life consequences, but your future relatives, who you will also never meet, who will suffer real life consequences in the future. Please stay engaged – Lee axing this provision is not the only thing that happened Saturday night – backroom deals were also being made. I urge you to lay eyes on what those deals are and hold politicians accountable to the provisions you do not like. It’s our role in this system to do so.
It got a little Hot for Lee but we must remember those elected officials that supported this bill in November.
This bill or something like it will be back on the table again and again. Wyoming needs to do what Montana did, (forbid the sale of Public Lands in Wyoming), or elected a Congressional delegation that will never support the sales of our public lands.
While I really do think they want to take out public lands, I just have to wonder if this proposal wasn’t just a distraction from how damaging the rest of this terrible bill will be for the country. Basically we are cashiering our sciences, our children and investing in a secret police force that can deport people at will.
That is what the people voted for and the GOP is going to deliver on its mandate. I really do not see how anyone that has one ounce of decency would claim to be a proud member of that party.
Excellent news! Let’s hope Utah voters remember this when the next election comes up.
Total face-plant for Barrasso, Lummis and Hageman too, we must not forget their treachery.
I wrote back in April as land sales were heating up in Congress that the only thing that would save federal lands was hardball politics. And that’s what Mike Lee and Congress got–hardball politics. What was most impressive is that the hardball politics involved almost all Americans and Wyomingites. I sincerely hope the truly multipartisan effort can continue, because, believe me, we haven’t heard the last of Lee and his fellow land thieves.
One direction the multipartisan effort can take is to send Wyoming’s congressional delegation packing for having betrayed their constituents by supporting land sales. Hageman and Lummis are up for re-election in 2026, Barrasso in 2030. It’s too bad Wyoming law doesn’t have a recall provision, and so Barrasso is safe until the end of the decade, but Hageman and Lummis are vulnerable now. Let’s keep them vulnerable and next year return them to the private sector.
Great news but this likely won’t be our last battle over our public lands. Please join the Keep It Public Wyoming coalition to ensure we are able to quash the next attempt.
https://keepitpublicwyo.com/