|
After persistent bipartisan opposition to language that would sell or swap hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in Utah and Nevada, House Republicans have scrapped public land sales from the latest version of their tax cut, energy, and border security bill, according to text released Wednesday evening.
The controversial amendment to sell hundreds of thousands of acres of national public land in Nevada and Utah to generate revenue for the tax and spending bill was backed by Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei and Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy. House Republicans unveiled the manager's amendment to the latest text of their budget reconciliation package Wednesday evening with the land sale language stripped out of the legislation after a marathon 20-hour Rules Committee meeting.
Former Interior secretary and Congressman from Montana Ryan Zinke advocated for the removal of the land sell-off language, arguing that large-scale divestment of public lands was a “red line” for him. Zinke said in a press release, “I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands. Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isn’t creating more land. Public access, sportsmanship, grazing, tourism…our entire Montanan way of life is connected to our public lands.”
“Clearly, selling off public lands is still a third rail for members of Congress on both sides of the aisle,” said Center for Western Priorities deputy director Aaron Weiss. “While there is a housing affordability crisis in the West, looking to our public lands to solve the problem is disingenuous and will only hurt Westerners by increasing sprawl and cutting off access to the trails and public lands we all love.”
|
The public has never asked for this. Nobody voted to turn campgrounds into corporate portals or open wildlands to foreign mining companies. Nobody demanded that rangers be replaced with kiosks or that entire forests be sacrificed for a theory of wildfire prevention that doesn’t match the science.”
