Senate Republicans want to sell the land to build more housing in the West, but the idea is contentious even within their own party.
Senate Republicans are resurrecting a plan to sell millions of acres of federal lands as part of President Trump’s giant tax and spending bill, setting up a fight within the party.
The proposal would require the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to identify and sell between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of public lands across 11 Western states to build housing.
Past efforts to auction off public land have enraged conservationists and have also proved contentious with some Republicans. A smaller proposal to sell around 500,000 acres of federal land in Utah and Nevada was stripped from the House version of the tax bill last month after opposition from Representative Ryan Zinke, Republican of Montana and a former interior secretary.
“This was my San Juan Hill; I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands,” Mr. Zinke said last month. “Once the land is sold, we will never get it back.”
The new plan to sell public lands was included in draft legislation issued on Wednesday by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that is part of Mr. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” The draft envisions raising as much as $10 billion by selling land for housing in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming over the next five years.
Notably, Mr. Zinke’s home state of Montana was left off the list.
Senator Mike Lee, the Utah Republican who leads the energy committee, said that the move would turn “federal liabilities into taxpayer value, while making housing more affordable for hardworking American families.”
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