Ian Brickey, ian.brickey@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Senate Republicans unveiled their proposed version of Donald Trump’s sprawling “one big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill, including Sen. Mike Lee’s controversial proposal to sell off vast swaths of public lands.
The updated text, released around midnight, allows Lee’s plan to make millions of acres of public lands eligible for sale across the West to private developers to potentially advance on a party-line vote in the Senate. The latest version of Lee’s proposal would force the sale of as much as 1.2 million of those acres across 11 states to private developers. In a change from the initial version, the current sell-off proposal excludes protected public landscapes, but still targets landscapes within five miles of a “population center.”
Lee’s initial proposal for selling-off public lands would have mandated the sale of as much as 3.3 million acres of public lands across the West, putting as much as 250 million acres at risk of privatization. That proposal received overwhelming opposition from Americans throughout the country and across the political spectrum before ultimately being struck down during the parliamentary review commonly known as the “Byrd bath.”
In response, Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, released the following statement:
“The new version of Mike Lee’s public lands sell-off is like cutting ‘most’ of the mercury out of your diet. The fact of the matter is that Mike Lee has spent the better part of a decade trying to privatize our public lands, and with his new power in the Senate, he’s trying to push that agenda even further without public input, without transparency, and shame. Americans left, right, and center have come together with one voice to say these landscapes shouldn’t be sold off to fund tax cuts for the uber-wealthy – not now, not ever. Congress needs to listen to their constituents, not billionaires and private developers, and keep the ‘public’ in public lands.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.