Public Lands Sell-Off Likely Dead in Trump Tax Bill Fight

A Republican proposal to help finance President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill by selling off up to a million acres of public land out West likely will die before making it out of the halls of Congress.

Even if the measure passes budgetary muster with the Senate rules keeper, a decision expected Friday, multiple Western Republicans have already made it clear they won’t support the provision.

The opposition to selling off public lands has become a high-profile flashpoint in the party’s tax deliberations over the last several weeks. While New Mexico Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich has led the charge against the language within his party, it’s the opposition from GOP Western members that seems to have sealed the proposal’s fate.

Republican leadership can’t afford to lose more than a handful of GOP votes, given the party’s tight margins in both the House and Senate as they race to pass Trump’s signature bill by July 4 using the reconciliation process that doesn’t require Democratic support.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s ruling on whether the revamped plan — crafted by Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) — is eligible for expedited consideration is still under review, after she rejected the original plan earlier this week. The modified plan, still under review, would reduce the number of acres eligible for sale and limit it to Bureau of Land Management parcels. However, even if the measure survives the so-called “Byrd” rule, it faces an uphill battle to passage.

Western Opposition

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) told reporters Thursday he has the votes to defeat the measure if it ends up in the overall bill. Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) is also against Lee’s plan, as are the two Idaho Republican Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo.

In the House, five Republican members told Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in a June 26 letter they would not vote for the reconciliation bill if it included the sale of federal lands.

“We understand and agree with Senator Lee and our House colleagues that the Federal government has mismanaged federal lands for decades, however, we do not agree with their solution,” wrote Reps. Ryan Zinke (Mont.), Mike Simpson (Idaho), Cliff Bentz (Ore.), David Valadao (Calif.), and Dan Newhouse (Wash.).

White House Indifference

Even the Trump administration isn’t lobbying hard for Lee’s idea. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum this week said the proposal to sell off public lands was never part of the “core” reconciliation bill lawmakers originally crafted and was not in the House-passed legislation. “It’s not a central topic,” he told Scripps News in an interview.

A coalition of outdoor recreation businesses, hunters, anglers, and public land advocates has lobbied hard against the language, saying it would significantly limit access to public lands across the West.

“Let me be clear that the sale of public lands, even a square inch of public lands, to pay off tax rates for billionaires, is a non-starter,” said Land Tawney, American Hunters & Anglers co-chair, in a Wednesday forum with public lands advocates organized by Heinrich. “This is our heritage we are talking about.”