Public Land Sale Can’t Be Rushed Thru Senate

UPDATED 12:04 P.M. PST, JUNE 24, 2025, WITH COMMENTS FROM BACKCOUNTRY HUNTERS AND ANGLERS

It’s all a little bit Washington DC-ese, but a bid to sell off 2 to 3 million acres of Forest Service and BLM land has been ruled subject to a 60-vote minimum instead of a simple majority in the Senate, and that has the chief architect of the very unpopular proposal scaling it back dramatically and opponents calling it “an important, but temporary, victory.”

The Senate Parliamentarian, a sort of “referee” for bills in the upper chamber of Congress, said the proposal from Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) would need to comply with the “Byrd Rule” and its larger majority requirement, per Democrats, and that had public land advocates cheering but still wary.

The news is still being absorbed this morning, but here’s some coverage.

In a press release, the National Wildlife Federation termed it “an important, but temporary, victory for wildlife, hunters, anglers, outdoor recreation, and rural communities across the West,” but “urged the public to remain vigilant as a proposed public-lands sale could resurface in the reconciliation process and beyond.”

Lee tweeted his plan now is to “Remove ALL Forest Service land. We are NOT selling off our forests” and “SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE the amount of BLM land in the bill,” allowing only that within 5 miles of “population centers” to be eligible for disposal. He also wants to create “FREEDOM ZONES” and “PROTECT our farmers, ranchers, and recreational users. They come first.”

Any substitute language that Lee, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, comes up with as part of a budget reconciliation bill will be gone over with a fine-tooth comb.

“This fight is absolutely not over,” tweeted Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, quoting president and CEO Patrick Berry’s remarks to Field & Stream. “Mike Lee has made it clear: He is going back to the drawing board to modify language that he’ll then include in this same Budget Reconciliation Bill.”

The Byrd rule, explains Outdoor Life, “requires budget reconciliation bills, like this one, to remain focused on fiscal issues. In other words, a non-partisan bureaucrat, known as a parliamentarian, helps ensure that policy-heavy legislation doesn’t get tacked onto a budget bill.”

Hunters in particular have been incensed about Lee’s initial proposal. A map put together by The Wilderness Society showed some 250 million acres of USFS and BLM land across 11 Western states would have been eligible for Lee’s rushed disposal of 2 to 3 million acres. There’s an existing process for selling public lands to achieve some of his aims, purportedly for housing but which could have impacted big game habitat and migratory corridors.

The battle against Lee’s proposal saw hunters posting backcountry images with sarcastic captions suggesting they’d be great locations for car washes, etc., as they played off language from the bill to “support local housing needs … or any associated infrastructure to support local housing needs.”

The writing may have been on the wall late last week when both of Idaho’s Republican senators, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, as well as Montana Republic Senator Steve Daines all came out against it.

“The parliamentarian’s pen temporarily staved off a public lands fire-sale proposal, but make no mistake: The threat to sell off places we hunt, fish, hike, and recreate, in the reconciliation process and beyond is not over, and so too must we remain vigilant,” said Collin O’Mara, NWF president and CEO, in his organization’s press release. “Thank you to the Republican and Democratic lawmakers standing with us against the recent land-sale proposals and thanks as well to the millions of hunters, anglers, hikers, and everyday people who joined together across geographies, generations, and ideologies to fight these dangerous lands sales.”