Update, June 25, 2025: Senator Mike Lee has released a revised version of his forced land sale provision. See here for more details.
Original Story:
Last night, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that a provision mandating that the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management sell 0.5 – 0.75% of their federal land estate across 11 western states cannot move forward as part of the Senate’s budget reconciliation bill being finalized this week. The provision—developed by Senator Mike Lee of Utah—would have resulted in the sale of millions of acres of national forest and other federal lands to facilitate development in California and elsewhere.
ForestWatch’s Director of Conservation & Research, Bryant Baker, released the following statement in response to the news:
“We’re glad to see the Senate parliamentarian reject Senator Lee’s proposal to sell off millions of acres of America’s public lands. These wild places are an integral part of our region and should never be placed on the chopping block. There is still a threat that a downsized forced land sale could still be included in the final bill or as part of new legislation, so we will need to remain vigilant.”
While the current version of the land sale provision will not be included in the final version of the Senate’s megabill, Senator Lee vowed to revise the language of his proposal to exclude national forest land and to limit the sale of lands under the Bureau of Land Management’s jurisdiction to those within five miles of a population center. Whether a revised proposal will even be allowed in the budget reconciliation bill is still unclear. The changes are, at least in part, likely due to immense public pressure and backlash from both sides of the political aisle over the initial proposal. It is also possible that a revised proposal will later be introduced as its own legislation or included as part of another bill.
According to a ForestWatch analysis of public land data, some 280,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Kern, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties would still meet the new criteria Senator Lee suggested in a social media post earlier today. ForestWatch will continue to monitor proposed legislation that may involve federal public land sales.
Header photo by Bryant Baker depicting area in Los Padres National Forest near Lockwood Valley that would have been eligible to be sold under the original bill’s text.