Utah Republican lawmakers are rushing to defend Sen. Mike Lee’s proposal to auction off millions of acres of public lands in the west to help pay for tax cuts in the “big beautiful bill” currently moving through Congress.
Last week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Sen. Lee chairs, unveiled a plan to raise as much as $10 billion by selling public land for housing development in 11 western states, including Utah.
“The federal government owns 640 million acres of land, nearly a third of all land in the United States. The vast majority of that land has zero recreational value,” Lee told conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Thursday.
“Disposing of a fraction of 1 percent of that, so that the next generation can afford a home, is a common-sense solution to a national problem.”
Lee’s math - and his dismissal of millions of acres as worthless - has sparked fierce pushback from environmental groups and others.
Scrambling to control the narrative, GOP Sen. Dan McCay emailed his colleagues on Thursday with a list of talking points about Lee’s proposal provided by Utah Third Congressional District Rep. Celeste Maloy. A copy of the email was obtained by Utah Political Watch.
“There has been significant misreporting on the issue, and the following points help correct the record and provide important context,” McCay wrote.
Rep. Maloy first proposed the sale of thousands of acres of public lands in Utah and Nevada to offset the cost of President Donald Trump’s massive tax cuts in May. The amendment she co-sponsored with Nevada GOP Rep. Mark Amodei was stripped out of the reconciliation bill before it was passed by the House.
Lee’s proposal requires the sale of at least 2 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands in 11 western states, including Utah, over the next five years. An analysis with accompanying map from the Wilderness Society identified up to 250 million acres of public lands that fit the criteria to be sold under Lee’s plan.
According to the talking points circulated in McCay’s email, that Wilderness Society analysis is a particular sore spot for defenders of Lee’s proposition.
“Chairman Lee’s proposal does not list a single acre for sale, and maps created by activist groups like the Wilderness Society are inaccurate. The legislation does not reference any maps and does not directly offer any parcels for sale. Instead, it creates a robust public nomination and identification process to identify unused land - land close to existing infrastructure that is appropriate to address the housing crisis,” McCay’s email read.
The email goes on to say the proposal was “narrowly and carefully crafted” to ensure that only lands close to existing population centers, within 1 to 5 miles, can be considered for auction. Public lands where there are grazing permits, special authorizations for ski areas, mining claims, mineral leases or rights of ways are ineligible to be sold.
“This is a proposal that fulfills promises made by President Trump in his campaign, unlocking a fraction of 1% of federal land to be used to build houses, which will create thousands of jobs, allow millions of Americans to realize the American dream, and reduce the deficit and fund our public lands,” McCay’s email read.
