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(Bloomberg) — A new version of a plan to sell vast tracts of public lands to help pay for President Donald Trump’s massive package of tax cuts has been added back into the Senate’s latest version of the package.
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The plan, which would mandate the sale of as much 1.2 million acres of Interior Department land for housing or “community development” across 11 western states, represents a blow to conservationists staunchly opposed to the measures.
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It could also complicate the path forward for the $4.2 trillion tax and spending package. The plan has been opposed by Western Republicans, who said earlier they have the votes to strike the measure from the bill.
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“I don’t support selling public lands,” Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, said in an interview earlier this week. “I think it’s shortsighted.”
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Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican leading the land sales effort — which dovetails with a Trump administration plan to use federal land to address a housing crisis — has said the step is needed to address a nationwide shortage of millions of affordable homes.
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“Unlocking federal land for housing will develop millions of single-family homes, resulting in greater housing supply and making housing more affordable,” the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Lee leads, said in a fact sheet on the proposal.
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Lee was forced to narrow the plan, which initially mandated the sale of as much as 3 million acres in federal land, after the Senate’s rule keeper said it didn’t comply with budgetary rules. The new version doesn’t include sales of US Forest Service Land and limits sales to be located within 5 miles of a “population center.”
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The sponsors of the latest provision estimate it would raise $6 billion.
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“The proposal would still amount to the largest sale of U.S. public lands in modern history,” the non-profit Wilderness Society said in a statement. “It is likely to threaten access to popular hiking trails, ski slopes and other outdoor recreation areas along with important wildlife habitat and cultural sites.”
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