1,225,000 Acres of Public Lands Are Still on the Chopping Block
Mike Lee's revised budget bill still includes massive public land sale
Let’s call it what it is.
Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) latest scheme to sell off America’s public lands—no matter how he trims it, rewrites it, or wraps it in the gauze of “housing”—is an attack on the soul of the American West and on every citizen who believes in the promise of shared, open space.
Lee may have scaled down his original plan—from 3.3 million acres to 1.2 million—and excluded Forest Service lands from the chopping block, but make no mistake: the intent remains.
This isn’t a housing bill. It’s a real estate fire sale, and the seller is you.
And it’s still between 612,500 and 1,225,000 acres, or 0.25% to 0.50% of all Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands.
A Bait and Switch in the High Desert
We’ve seen this negotiation tactic before.
Propose something so outrageous and unrealistic that, when you scale it down, it seems more acceptable. It may even make you look reasonable and willing to compromise.
Not in this case, though. We all see through it.
What Mike Lee wants to do is take something most Americans support—affordable housing, in this case—and use it as a Trojan horse to smuggle in an entirely unrelated agenda that benefits his donors.
Mike Lee’s revised bill—you can read it here—still opens up vast swaths of Bureau of Land Management lands to private sale, with vague language like “within five miles of a population center” and “nomination of a tract of [BLM] land for disposal submitted by an interested party.”
The bill doesn’t specify what a “population center” is. Is it a town of 10,000 people? A remote community of 200 people? Is it a campground with 25 campsites? Or is it a single working farm or ranch? No one knows.
It also doesn’t explain what an “interested party” would be. The bill’s language on interested parties specifically includes “States and units of local government,” but it doesn’t actually exclude anyone.
Let’s make this very clear: Mike Lee’s revised bill does not exclude the selling of American public lands to foreign entities.
Translation? Developers and lobbyists—both domestic and foreign—get to cherry-pick our public lands for private profit under the illusion of public good.
Remember what happened in central Oregon in the 1980s, when a religious cult from India, known as Rajneeshpuram, bought land and built its own city?
Tensions between locals and the cult’s fanatical followers rose so high, there were—I’m not exaggerating—murder attempts, bombings, and the largest bioterror attack ever executed on American soil. The cult was also involved in one of America’s largest ever wiretapping operations and committed the biggest immigration fraud in history.
All of this eventually resulted in the largest criminal investigation in the history of Oregon.
The same could be coming to BLM lands near you. Literally. Thanks to Mike Lee.
I highly recommend watching the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country, which tells this story in great detail.
Additionally, let’s also be clear about this: nothing in this bill guarantees affordable housing. Not a word.
These lands could just as easily become luxury condos, vacation homes, or private retreats for billionaires who already own too much. This is not about homes for working families.
It’s about power, privatization, and politics.
America’s Wild Promise Is at Stake
Public lands are not abstractions. They are places we go to heal, to breathe, to hunt, to fish, to connect. They are the wide-open spaces that define what America looks like—spaces where you don’t need a million-dollar trust fund to pitch a tent under the stars.
They are also the lifeblood of rural economies, drawing hunters, anglers, hikers, photographers, and paddlers from around the world.
They clean our air, feed our rivers, and shelter the wildlife that generations have fought to protect. Selling them off—especially under false pretenses—is not only a betrayal of public trust, it’s a desecration of what makes this country unique.
When Senator Lee says he’s “just getting started,” believe him.
He has spent years trying to undermine federal land protections, roll back landmark conservation laws, and hand over vast ecosystems to the whims of private industry. This bill is just the latest move in a long campaign to dismantle public ownership of land in the United States.
Who Benefits?
You won’t. Your kids won’t.
The people who benefit from this bill are the ones who see land not as legacy, but as leverage. Speculators. Developers. Political donors. It’s the kind of cynical profiteering that has hollowed out our cities, priced working families out of their neighborhoods, and now aims to do the same in our wildlands.
Ask yourself: If this bill truly had the public’s best interest at heart, why the secrecy? Why rush it into a budget reconciliation package that avoids normal debate, scrutiny, and public feedback? Why write it so vaguely that even seasoned land managers are left guessing what it actually means?
Thankfully, the Senate parliamentarian saw through the trick and struck down Mike Lee’s initial bill. But the threat remains active.
Lee and his allies immediately tried again—with quieter language, smaller parcels, and subtler arguments. That’s how these things get through.
This Fight Is About Who We Are
This isn’t about left or right. Hunters, anglers, veterans, conservationists, ranchers, and recreationists of all stripes have stood together to oppose this plan.
Idaho’s Republican senators pushed back. California ranchers pushed back. Indigenous groups and outdoor organizations have raised alarm.
But the community that has pushed back the fiercest are the hunters and anglers—many of whom are conservatives—who often rely entirely on Forest Service or BLM lands to enjoy their passion. (Most National Park Service units don’t allow hunting.)
When Mike Lee called the people who oppose his public land sales bill “paid leftists” on a right-wing podcast yesterday, the backlash from furious conservatives on his X account was unlike anything I’ve ever seen online.
He’s breathtakingly out of touch with how America feels about this and it’s hard to see how he’ll ever recover from this politically.
Because when it comes to public lands, we don’t see red or blue—we see green.
We see trails we’ve walked with our children. Rivers we’ve fished with our grandparents. Lands where generations of Americans have found freedom, connection, and peace.
Public lands are, quite literally, “the land of the free.” Nowhere else can you experience what actual freedom feels like than on public lands. They are what defines America. They are what makes America great.
I’d also like to make the point that selling public lands doesn’t only decrease your opportunities to recreate on them. It also potentially affects what you see when doing so—selling certain tracts of public lands could greatly affect the viewshed from other nearby public lands.
Many national park sites and other protected areas are adjacent or near BLM lands. If those BLM lands get sold and developed, the view you see from overlooks and mountaintops could be greatly altered.
We cannot allow our heritage to be parceled off for short-term, one-time gain. We cannot let public land become the next casualty of a political system that increasingly treats everything—including our environment—as transactional.
The Call to Action
Now is the time to keep speaking up. The momentum is ours. Call your senators. Write to your representatives. Join organizations fighting to protect public lands.
The Senate plans on voting on the entire so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” on Friday—just two days from now—and if the Senate parliamentarian doesn’t remove Mike Lee’s second public land sales attempt before then, it will come down to actual Senator votes.
So, contact them today. And contact them again tomorrow.
Tell them you’re watching them. Tell them you won’t vote for anyone who doesn’t publicly oppose public land sales. Tell them their political future is on the line, too.
We’re not just fighting for a few acres of scrub and sagebrush here.
In a very literal sense, we’re fighting for our favorite local trail where we walk our dog, for the ability to go for a quick sunset hike near our home, for the opportunity to enjoy peace and quiet in nature after a stressful day, for the areas where we practice our bow hunting skills.
But we’re also fighting for an idea—that there are still some things in this country that belong to everyone. That not every inch of America has to have a price tag. That the freedom to roam is as sacred as the right to vote.
Mike Lee may think he can wear us down, whittle away protections piece by piece.
But the American people have drawn this line before, and we’re doing it again. We’re doing it in full force, united.
We’re sending a clear message, once and for all, that our public lands are not for sale. Not now, not ever. Not. One. Acre.
And definitely not by an extremist like Mike Lee.
Read my previous article for the currently best way to get rid of Mike Lee’s public land grab bill in the Senate:
Here's How We Get Rid of Mike Lee's Public Land Sales Bill
This upcoming week, the U.S. Senate will vote on Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) public land sales bill, which would be included in the massive so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Unless public outcry becomes so overwhelming the bill gets removed before voting takes place.
Easy Ways to Help Protect Our Public Lands
There are a number of easy and convenient ways to voice your opposition to the selling of public lands:
Call your senator at 202-224-3121.
Contact your senator via 5calls.org.
Fill out the “Stop the Senate’s Plan to Sell Off Public Lands” form provided by Outdoor Alliance.