Legislative wrangling over the Republican megabill has continued apace in recent days, and amid the debates, a contentious provision regarding the potential sale of public lands has fallen by the wayside.
As The Hill reports, amid mounting pushback from members of his own party, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) pulled the land sales measure — of which he was a key proponent — from the Trump-backed ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Measure draws backlash
The measure Lee backed would have involved the selling of between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of land owned by the government.
Though the initial provision was smacked down by the Senate parliamentarian, Lee offered a revised measure covering just 600,000 to 1.2 million acres.
However, opposition began to mount from western state Republican senators, with five threatening to vote against the entire megabill if Lee’s proposal was part of it, as Politico notes.
Among those standing against Lee’s measure was Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, who stated, “The people of Idaho have been clear — we do NOT support the sale of our public lands to the highest bidder.”
Risch continued, “I am proud to help lead the effort to remove this provision from the One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Lee relents
Given the uphill battle his proposal clearly faced, Lee gave in on Saturday night and removed it from the bill.
Noting the lengthy talks he says he had with interested stakeholders and parties potentially impacted by the measure, Lee admitted that there was not a path forward for the provision.
Lee issued a statement, asserting, “Because of the strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process, I was unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families – not to China, not to Blackrock, and not to any foreign interests.”
He went on, “For that reason, I’ve decided to withdraw the federal land sales provision from the bill.”
Lee also blamed what he said was “misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies” for sinking support for the measure.
Moving forward
Holding fast to the beliefs that propelled him to push the measure to begin with, Lee declared, “I believe the federal government owns far too much land — land it is mismanaging and in many cases ruining for the next generation.”
Lee further noted, “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,” but precisely what form such collaboration may take, only time will tell.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Sarah May
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.conservativejournalreview.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
