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Washington’s national forests are safe from being purchased after U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, walked back a proposal to sell public land owned by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management as part of the Republican tax and spending bill.
A budget bill backed by Lee proposed selling off 3.3 million acres of public land, including parts of Washington’s national forests. Lee led the initiative to sell the land, which he continues to say will help address a nationwide housing crisis, while providing more money to help the federal government pay off debt.
The proposal drew major pushback from the public and elected officials, including Washington Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove, who told The Center Square that the proposal was a “reckless short-sighted scheme.”
“This ill-conceived proposal to sell millions of acres of public land for private benefit across the western United States and right here in Washington state undermines the public interest,” Upthegrove emailed The Center Square.
On Monday night, Lee announced that he is removing all U.S. Forest Service land from the list of public lands for sale, as well as “significantly” reducing the amount of Bureau of Land Management land in the bill to only land within five miles of population centers.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, put out a statement regarding ensuring that the Byrd Rule is followed for any attempt to change the reconciliation bill, including public land sales. The Byrd Rule is a U.S. Senate rule that allows senators to block provisions in a budget reconciliation bill if they are deemed extraneous to the budget process.
“Democrats will not stand idly by while Republicans attempt to circumvent the rules of reconciliation in order to sell off public lands to fund tax breaks for billionaires,” Merkley said.
“Yes, the Byrd Rule limits what can go in the reconciliation bill, but I’m doing everything I can to support President Trump and move this forward,” Lee wrote in the social media post.
The senators' original plan would have required the government to auction off between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to generate between $5 billion and $10 billion of income between fiscal years 2025 and 2034.
In total, the federal government owns roughly 640 million acres throughout the U.S., or nearly one in three acres. That means, at most, this legislation would sell only 0.5% of all the federal land, as previously reported by The Center Square.
In Washington, U.S. Forest Service land for sale included parts of the Wenatchee, Okanogan, and Gifford Pinchot National Forests.
Despite Lee’s change of heart, Upthegrove said he isn’t declaring victory yet.
“I am glad Sen. Lee has apparently rethought his outrageous plan to sell off our national forests but I remain concerned that this bill still puts our public lands at risk for private benefit,” Upthegrove said.