A press statement from the Senate Committee on the Budget last night stated that a controversial proposal to sell up to 3 million acres of public land in the West does not follow Senate budget rules.
“Today, the Senate Parliamentarian again advised that several provisions in the Republicans’ ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill,’ would be subject to a 60-vote threshold if they remain in the bill,” according to the statement. One of the provisions includes Lee’s plan that would require the sale millions of acres of National Forest and Bureau of Land Management ground across 11 Western states.
Since there is currently a slim Republican majority in the Senate (53 Republicans to 47 Democrats), it’s highly unlikely that Lee’s provision would ever pass the 60-vote threshold. That’s why he attempted to wedge it into the the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ which needs only a majority vote to pass.
Lee’s provision has essentially been jammed up by the Byrd Rule, which requires budget reconciliation bills, like this one, to remain focused on fiscal issues. In other words, a non-partisan bureaucrat, known as a parliamentarian, helps ensure that policy-heavy legislation doesn’t get tacked onto a budget bill.
“That’s why Senator Lee, who’s very experienced [at politics], has tied every one of these [public-land sale] things to money to offset the budget gap, [to] money to offset tax decreases or spending increases,” Randy Newberg told the Outdoor Life Podcast on Friday.
Before Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough advised that Lee’s bill would not pass the Byrd Rule, the Senator from Utah had announced on X that he would be revising his plan. He posted the following just minutes before the parliamentarian’s determination became public:
Housing prices are crushing families and keeping young Americans from living where they grew up. We need to change that.
Thanks to YOU—the AMERICAN PEOPLE—here’s what I plan to do:
1. REMOVE ALL Forest Service land. We are NOT selling off our forests.
2. SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE the amount of BLM land in the bill. Only land WITHIN 5 MILES of population centers is eligible.
3. Establish FREEDOM ZONES to ensure these lands benefit AMERICAN FAMILIES.
4. PROTECT our farmers, ranchers, and recreational users. They come first.
Yes, the Byrd Rule limits what can go in the reconciliation bill, but I’m doing everything I can to support President Trump and move this forward.
Stay tuned. We’re just getting started.
It’s unclear when a draft of Lee’s new proposal will be made public and if or when it will be submitted to the Senate parliamentarian. However, it’s crystal clear that hunters and public land advocates strongly oppose Lee’s plan, including his promised revisions.
“This is going to be the week that determines where public lands stay in the minds of people back in DC,” Newberg said in an Instagram video. “[We cannot] take our foot off the gas and make a deal with someone like Mike Lee … who every piece of anti public lands legislation, every lawsuit, has his finger prints on it somewhere, yet somehow he’s seen the light?,”
Tomorrow Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is hosting a large-scale campaign to “Flood the Lines” and oppose federal public land sales by helping hunters and conservationists contact their representatives.
The parliamentarian also ruled out a host of other public-land policy provisions Monday, including the construction of the Ambler Road to access mineral deposits in Alaska, as well as changes to permitting and oil and gas leasing.
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