Public lands in Arizona won’t go up for sale after Utah senator abandons proposal

The provision would have forced the sale of thousands of acres of federal public land across Arizona and other Western states.

A hotly debated proposal to force the sale of public lands across Arizona and the West was removed from the Senate tax and policy bill following an outcry from opponents.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee tried to push several versions of the plan into the bill, but in the end, he conceded it lacked the support to pass.

Tracts of public land across Arizona won’t go up for sale after a mandate forcing the disposal of millions of federal acres was removed from the U.S. Senate’s comprehensive budget package.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee, R-Utah, announced June 28 on X that his provision requiring the sale of federal public lands for housing and infrastructure development would be withdrawn from the Senate’s bill after weeks of public outcry and pushback from fellow Republican senators.

“Because of the strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process, I was unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would only be sold to American families — not to Black Rock, not to China, and not to any foreign interests,” said Lee.

Lee’s decision preempted a vote on an amendment announced by Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., that would have stripped the public land sale from the bill.

After the Senate parliamentarian found an earlier version of the provision violated the Senate’s rules on budget reconciliation, Lee’s final plan would have required the government to sell hundreds of thousands of acres overseen by the Bureau of Land Management across 11 Western states, including Arizona.

“This is a huge win for public lands and everyone who loves them,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, a nonpartisan conservation advocacy organization, in a news release.

“Senator Lee’s ill-conceived plan to sell off public lands for private profit has backfired in a spectacular fashion, uniting the left and right in defense of public lands and illustrating the broad popularity of preserving our national heritage,” said Rokala.

Both of Arizona’s senators, Democrats Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, opposed the mandate.

“These public lands are part of who we are as they support our economy, protect our environment, and offer Arizonans a place to hike, hunt, and explore. Selling them off to fund Trump’s tax giveaways to billionaires is reckless and wrong,” Kelly said in a news release. “Once they’re gone, they’re gone for good — lost forever to public use and conservation.”

The Trump administration has proposed using “underutilized federal lands” to address the country’s affordable housing crisis, and in March, the secretaries of Interior and Housing and Urban Development announced a joint task force to identify public land suitable for development and streamline their transfer to local authorities.

“President Trump promised to put underutilized federal land to work for American families, and I look forward to helping him achieve that in a way that respects the legacy of our public lands and reflects the values of the people who use them most,” said Lee in a statement.

Source: Utah News