Last night, my social media blew up as word from the halls of Congress came down that, after public outcry over the inclusion of a public lands sell-off caused the provision to be stripped from the House version of the budget reconciliation bill, the brilliant geniuses of the Senate stuck it back in there. And not only that, they upped the ante.
They now want to do a mandatory sell-off of at least 3 million acres of your public lands.
So, gear up, folks, we're going to have to fight these vultures once again as they absolutely hate the idea of you having access to the great outdoors to fish, camp, dirt bike, off-road, hunt, and otherwise recreate how you see fit. Luckily for us, public land advocates have already beaten this measure once, and we can absolutely rally together—the hunters, the off-roaders, the campers and climbers—to do it again.
But let's talk about the nuts and bolts of this idiocy, and what everyone here can do to stop it.
The provision was introduced by the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which is headed by the man who hates your public lands the most, my own Senator, Mike Lee. In the provision, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would be required to sell between 1.18 million and 1.77 million acres, while the Forestry Service would be required to sell between 686,000 to 1.03 million acres of your public lands.
What's the lie-ridden reasoning that the Committee gives? "For housing, increased timber sales, geothermal leasing, and compensation of states and localities for the cost of wind and solar projects on federal land," the bill states. That last bit is funny as hell in its brazen bullshit since state and localities received federal funds for those projects and didn't spend a dime of their own money. But "for housing" is a myth I've debunked so many times here on RideApart that I'm at the point where the next person who says public lands could be used for affordable housing, I may actually slap.
As you can imagine, public land advocacy groups are up in arms and already mobilizing the troops.
"This isn't about budget reconciliation or affordable housing. This is a fraudulent scheme to swindle American citizens out of our shared legacy," said Patrick Berry, President and CEO for our friends over at Backcountry Hunters & Anglers in a statement, adding, "Our public lands are not disposable assets and the gaslighting campaign claiming this is somehow a solution to a housing crisis is an insult to all of us."
Michael Carroll, Director of the BLM Campaign for The Wilderness Society, stated, "Americans disagree about a lot of things, but most of us are on the same page about keeping public lands in public hands. Shoving the sale of public lands back into the budget reconciliation bill, all to fund tax cuts for the wealthy, is a betrayal of future generations and folks on both sides of the aisle."
Multiple other agencies, advocacy groups, individuals, and others also released statements condemning Mike Lee's proposal, as well as putting it back into the reconciliation bill. We knew he would, but this is ridiculous in its scope.
I've already emailed both Utah's Senators Lee and Curtis, the former of whom I may have lost my cool with and asked how cravenly corrupt he is, given how he's selling out his own state's residents both in terms of enjoyment and revenue. I doubt I will sway him, though I also made it clear that I'd do everything in my power to oust him the next election cycle.
"If [the proposal] has the votes, if a deal's been cut to get out of committee and attached to the Senate version of the budget, this is going to be really, really bad...It's going to require a lot of pressure, from a lot of people, applied on everybody," said preeminent conservationist Randy Newberg after learning the news himself, adding, "What a joke, what a joke."
But now it's up to you and every other public lands owner and lover to fight. And here's how to do it. Here's the House's main switchboard: (202) 225-3121, or call (202) 224-3121 for the Senate. You can email your representatives here, and we can fax and show up at their offices, both in your state and at the Capitol.
So now's the time to fight. But we need every single person who enjoys public lands to take up the fight, too, as we're far stronger together than divided. We've beaten them once, and we can absolutely do it again.
