Senate Republicans are resurrecting a plan
to sell millions of acres of federal lands as part of President Donald Trump’s
giant tax and spending bill, setting up s fight within the party.
The proposal would require the Bureau of Land
Management and the U.S. Forest Service to identify and sell between 2.2 million
and 3.3 million acres of public lands across 11 Western states to build
housing.
Past efforts to auction off public land
have enraged conservationist and have also proved contentious with some
Republicans. A smaller proposal to sell around 500,000 acres of federal land in
Utah and Nevada was stripped from the House version of the tax bill last month
after opposition from Rep., a former interior secretary.
“This was my Sun Juan Hill; I do not
support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands,” Zinke said last
month. ”Once the land is sold, we will never get it back.”
The new plan to sell public lands was included
in draft legislation issued Wednesday by the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee that is part of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” The draft
envisions raising as much as $10 billion by selling land for housing in Alaska,
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington,
and Wyoming over the next five years.
Notably, Zink’s home state of Montana was
left off the list.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who leads the energy
committee, said the move would turn “federal liabilities into taxpayer value,
while making housing more affordable for hardworking American families.”
The draft legislation requires that the
public lands by sold “for the development of housing or to address associated community
needs,” and gives the sectaries of interior and agriculture leeway to define that.
A fact sheet issued by the committee said that
the two federal agencies would be selling between 0.5% and 0.75% of their holdings,
which amount to roughly 438 million acres, and would prioritize land within 5
miles of existing population centers. The bill would exempt national parks, national
monuments and designated wilderness areas.
Environmental groups denounced the
proposal.
“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,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western advocacy group.(Brad Plumer)
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