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A new report from the Center for American Progress cautions against proposals that purport to address the nation's housing affordability crisis by selling off America's public lands. While some thoughtfully crafted land transfers could be beneficial as part of a comprehensive approach to housing reform, recent legislative proposals and Trump administration actions are simply a pretense to sell off public lands, putting America’s lands, waters, and wildlife at risk without meaningfully addressing housing needs.
Privatizing public lands on a large scale is not a viable way to create more affordable housing. The Center for American Progress looked at the 10 Western states with the most BLM lands and found that less than 1 percent of those BLM lands are located within 10 miles of the states’ significant population centers, even before considering whether those lands are appropriate for sale and suitable for development.
Instead of pursuing reckless and extreme public land sell-off schemes, the report advocates for comprehensive approaches, including expanded housing assistance, increased production of affordable rental units and starter homes, and regulatory reforms. Sacrificing America's treasured public lands will not solve the housing affordability problem and will come at a significant cost to the land, wildlife, and Americans' access to their public lands.
Trump considering plan to restructure wildfire response system
According to a draft executive order obtained by the Washington Post, the Trump administration is considering restructuring the nation’s firefighting system to focus on the “immediate suppressing of fires,” including responding to wildfires within 30 minutes and changing aircraft regulations to accelerate response time. State and federal officials expressed concern that the plan erodes safety standards for aircraft involved in fire suppression and sets an unrealistic expectation for response time that could lead to firefighters taking more dangerous risks. Firefighters warned that the order is counterproductive, does not prioritize proactive fire mitigation techniques like controlled burns, and ignores the fact that low-intensity fire is a natural and necessary part of forest ecosystems.
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These fired employees, we know from experience, represent the best of America. Many gave up other potentially financially lucrative jobs to serve the public interest, many were military veterans. To see them treated the way they have been over the past few months is incompetence at best and mean-spirited at worst.”
