Public Lands Win: Sell-Offs Scrapped from House Spending Bill! But It’s Not All Good News.

Public lands near Nevada’s Gold Butte National Monument were among the nearly 500,000 acres included in Reps. Amodei (R-NV) and Maloy’s (R-UT) public lands selloff amendment. Photo credit: Bureau of Land Management

Late last night, a provision that would have greenlit the sale of more than 500,000 acres of national public lands in Utah & Nevada was removed from the House budget reconciliation package after strong opposition from both sides of the aisle.

“We appreciate the bipartisan support for ultimately removing the public lands sell off provision in the budget bill. There was little doubt that if this provision remained that we would see additional efforts to sell off national parks, forest, and other federal public lands in states beyond Utah and Nevada. Through our collective advocacy, Members of the House of Representatives heard loud and clear that the American public love our public lands and that they are not for sale.” -Tom Uniack, Executive Director at Washington Wild.

A testament to the powerful grassroots and grasstops efforts of public land advocates across the country, this is a major win!

Among those efforts was a letter submitted earlier this week by Washington Wild, signed by 66 Washington State Senators and Representatives, urging each member of Washington’s U.S. Congressional delegation to oppose attempts in Washington, D.C. to sell off national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands as part of the pending budget bill. The letter urged Washington State’s Congressional delegation to remove and/or oppose language in House budget bill that would allow for selling off more than 500,000 acres of federal lands.

Public lands along the Zion Scenic Byway were among the nearly 500,000 acres included in Reps. Amodei (R-NV) and Maloy’s (R-UT) public lands selloff amendment.

But unfortunately, we are not yet out of the woods.

All attention now shifts to the Senate where Senators will also face an uphill battle to ensure that sell-off provisions are not included in the final bill. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has been a longtime proponent of forcing the large-scale sell off on national public lands and will certainly push his own proposals to sell off America’s public lands. 

Moreover, several harmful provisions in the spending package that passed the House still threaten our public lands and waters. The bill includes sweeping changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), such as allowing developers to pay for expedited reviews and sidestep judicial oversight. It also mandates reckless oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other public lands, dramatically expands mining and logging—including in the sensitive headwaters of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness—and eliminates all remaining Inflation Reduction Act funding for the National Park Service. This includes cutting $267 million that could have addressed critical staffing needs across our national parks.

Washington Wild and supporters of public lands from both sides of the aisle will need to join forces to stop these proposals from advancing.