The latest version of a controversial bill that would require the sale of federal land to pay for tax cuts limits the scope of Bureau of Land Management property eligible for sale, but remains unacceptable to hunting, fishing, and conservation leaders.
The revision of the Interior Department’s budget proposal, drafted by Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) and released last night, would limit BLM land sales to within five miles of “population centers” but retains ambiguous language that could put 1.225 million acres of public land on the auction block.
It’s unclear whether Lee’s revision will pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, who earlier ruled that land-sale provisions aren’t strictly budgetary and must face a 60-vote passage in the Senate, where Republicans have only a 3-seat majority.
“Lee thinks this is a better deal,” said public-land advocate Randy Newberg in an Instagram post. “It’s still a pile of dog shit, it’s just a different pile of dog shit. He just doesn’t get it.”
Newberg directs followers to call their Senators as well as their Congressmen and women in the U.S. House of Representatives to kill the latest land-sale requirement. The Sportsmen’s Alliance this morning issued a call for hunters and anglers to call lawmakers to oppose what it calls Lee’s “land grab.”
The latest bill draft (which you can read here) would sell only BLM lands and would require between .05 and .75 percent of all BLM ground in 11 Western states to be sold starting this fall. Early versions of the bill included Forest Service lands. Sources say the amount required to be sold ranges between 609,379 and 1,218,758 acres of federal land managed by the BLM. Federal land in Montana is excluded from the land-sale requirement.
The draft clearly excludes BLM land with existing livestock grazing leases from sale, but it gives the Secretary of the Interior broad discretion to determine what valid existing rights, including mining claims and mineral leases, could be transferred with a land sale.
Lee has stressed that his bill is intended to alleviate housing and urban infrastructure constraints around fast-growing Western cities that are often hemmed in by BLM lands. But critics note that the latest draft swaps ambiguous language in the early versions with equally ambiguous language that would make land eligible for sale that supplies “any infrastructure and amenities to support local needs associated with housing.”
There’s also a provision that would make land eligible only if it is “within 5 miles of a population center.” However, the legislation doesn’t define a “population center.”
The bill directs the Interior Secretary to “give priority consideration” to the disposal of BLM tracts that are nominated by states or local governments, are adjacent to existing developed areas, have access to existing infrastructure, and are suitable for residential housing. However, the bill also retains language that any “interested party” could nominate parcels for sale.
Lee has been lambasted by hunting, fishing, outdoor recreation, and conservation groups for what they call his “tone-deaf” insistence to push this land-sale provision in the omnibus federal budget bill, which legislative leaders want to pass by July 4. In what appears to be a concession to hunting and fishing groups, the latest bill draft would reduce from 90 to 85 percent the portion of revenue from land sales that goes to the federal treasury, and boosts from 5 to 10 percent the portion of revenue that would be used to fund agency maintenance backlogs in the state where the sale takes place.
The latest draft further allows that state portion of revenue to be used “for hunting, fishing, and recreational amenities” on BLM lands.
In its action alert, the Sportsmen’s Alliance described Lee’s proposal as a land-grabbing “scheme.”
“Despite being told by the U.S. Senate Parliamentarian that his plan to sell off millions of acres of public land would be struck from the budget reconciliation process, Lee is doubling down with new ‘proposals’ to jam through and keep his scheme alive,” the group says. “Sportsmen and women throughout the nation need to respond and voice their opposition to this land grab by calling their U.S. Senators and saying ‘NO!’ on any and all proposals to transfer federal public lands of any type in the budget bill.”
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers has mobilized a coordinated phone-in campaign Wednesday (today) to flood the offices of elected officials with demands to drop the land-sale provision from the federal budget.
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