Public Land Selloff Provisions Removed from Senate Budget Reconciliation Bill
Image by Benjamin Kraushaar
This week, the Senate passed its version of the budget reconciliation bill—and thanks to outreach from the outdoor community, the final bill had no public land sell offs. This is a significant victory, and it happened because of unprecedented vocal opposition from the outdoor community.
Over the past month, Outdoor Alliance supporters and millions of other outdoor advocates sent a clear message to Congress: public lands are not for sale. On Saturday, Senator Mike Lee announced that he was withdrawing his proposal to sell off public lands from the Senate budget package. Lee’s second proposal would have mandated the sale of up to 1 million acres of Bureau of Land Management lands—including places close to home where people hike, bike, camp, and hunt. His announcement followed overwhelming public opposition, with outdoor enthusiasts across the country raising their voices and reaching out to lawmakers.
“Outdoor Alliance is pleased to see Senator Lee remove his provision to sell off public lands from the Senate budget reconciliation bill,” said Adam Cramer, CEO of Outdoor Alliance. “We are grateful to the millions of outdoor enthusiasts who spoke up about keeping public lands public in the last few weeks—this victory is because of your voices. We are also grateful to the lawmakers who spoke out to ensure that this country continues to protect public lands and waters for all Americans.”
Public lands are a bipartisan value, and many lawmakers stood up in recent weeks to protect them, including Reps. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), Mike Simpson (R-ID), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), David Valadao (R-CA), and Cliff Bentz (R-OR), as well as Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-MT), Steve Daines (R-MT), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Jim Risch (R-ID). These lawmakers helped beat back proposals that would have threatened public land access across the West. We’re also grateful to Reps. Hurd, Kiley, the members of the Public Lands Caucus, and others who worked behind the scenes to make this outcome possible.
What’s Next
While the Senate removed the most dangerous land sale provisions, the reconciliation bill passed by the Senate still includes a number of serious threats to the outdoors. These include:
Expanding offshore oil and gas drilling
Increasing timber production with reduced safeguards
Weakening the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
Rolling back clean energy investments
The package now heads back to the House, where lawmakers will reconcile differences between the two versions. This is our last chance to push for protections for conservation, recreation access, and the outdoor recreation economy.
You can help by thanking your Senators for standing up for public lands—and urging your Representatives to protect the outdoors as they finalize the bill.