Public Lands Victory: Sen. Lee Bails on Federal Land Sale… for Now
The bill’s author takes the L, but tries to regain control of the narrative. Here’s a closer look at his future moves:
Facing massive backlash, Utah Senator Mike Lee is pulling his plan to sell federal land from the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”
While the immediate threat to public land is over, Lee is very clear that he intends to try again later. Let’s take a look at his statement on the withdrawal:
Over the past several weeks, l've spent a lot of time listening to members of the community, local leaders, and stakeholders across the country. While there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation-and in some cases, outright lies-about my bill, many people brought forward sincere concerns.
Because of the strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process, I was unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families— not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.
For that reason, I've made the decision to withdraw the federal land sales provision from the bill.
I continue to believe the federal government owns far too much land—land it is mismanaging and in many cases ruining for the next generation. Under Democratic presidents, massive swaths of the West are being locked away from the people who live there, with no meaningful recourse. That has real consequences for Utahns-from raising taxes for schools and funding local search-and-rescue operations, to being able to build homes and sustain rural communities.
President Trump promised to put underutilized federal land to work for American families, and l look forward to helping him achieve that in a way that respects the legacy of our public lands and reflects the values of the people who use them most.
I'm grateful to everyone who took the time to offer thoughtful feedback. Your voices helped strengthen this bill, and they will continue to shape the path forward.
–Sen. Mike Lee, (R) Utah
Senator Lee’s Parting Shot
Notice that Lee can’t help taking a swipe at those of us who pointed out genuine problems with his proposal, calling us liars and misinformation spreaders.
In truth, the number one spreader of misinformation about Senator Lee’s bill, is Senator Lee himself.
In this previous article, Quandary Magazine broke down the land sale plan, refuting many of Lee’s claims with direct citations to page and line numbers in the bill.
Even though this plan is now dead, I believe this post is still worth reading because it shows just how dishonest the Senator was when advocating for his proposal. That – or, he didn’t write it, and hadn’t read it.
I cannot emphasize this enough: Lee is on video making demonstrably false claims about his bill. The above article also includes a podcast appearance on Charlie Kirk’s show with timestamps highlighting these falsehoods.
The Battle is Over; the War is not
Another huge warning sign that Lee will be coming back for more, is his careful reframing of the issue. In his response, Lee claims he wants to address a concern that’s only tangential to the core issue opponents have been raising: the idea private equity, or a less-than-friendly foreign power could wind up snatching up the property.
That’s a lovely thought — gun to my head, I’d certainly rather my fellow countryman build their mountaintop mansion over Xi Jinping — but my first choice would be to not sell the land in the first place.
At least not without a clear upside.
This is a bit like your dad stealing the car your grandpa gave you, and selling it to pay off his reckless gambling debt. “Don’t worry son; your cousin is buying it, not the shady used car dealership!”
Lee conveniently ignores legitimate demands from citizens, including but not limited to:
Protecting pristine wilderness
Protecting popular waterways, trails, climbing spots, etc.
Preventing wealthy Americans from using this to buy phenomenal real estate for cheap
Giving actual right of first refusal to local communities (the original bill appeared to do this, but very sneakily made it discretionary)
Senator Lee did promise to take national forests off the table in a future version of the bill, but he also repeatedly asserted that they were never on the table, and that suggesting anything to the contrary was disinformation spread by paid actors.
Oops!
Arguments
Unlike some hardline opponents, I’m not opposed to selling any federal land under all circumstances. But If we’re going to permanently give up an irreplaceable asset, there should be a reasonable benefit to American citizens.
Instead, the Senator’s plan offers a circuitous solution to a manufactured problem — that problem being housing shortages.
Yes, we have an affordable housing crisis. We also have millions of vacant homes. An article from Today’s Homeowner estimates as many as 9% of all houses in the U.S. sit empty. This is due to a few factors, including rental vacancies, seasonal properties, foreclosures, or simply due to private equity firms sitting on the places until they can sell at a higher margin.
The factors keeping close to a tenth of all homes vacant won’t change just because some new constructions hit the market.
As for the national deficit: Lee’s plan wouldn’t even raise enough money to cover all our expenses for a full day.
Throwing Spaghetti at the Wall
In his announcement, Lee also fired off a few new arguments that seem at odds with one another. He claims the land is actually being ruined by mismanagement. Mind you, Lee argues these same lands are “locked away,” as if two thirds of Utah is surrounded by unscalable prison walls.
If that were the case, how is the land getting ruined?
In truth, much of our federally managed land is readily accessible to the public. Some inaccessible areas are set aside for important cultural sites, or to protect wildlife.
Curiously, Lee also asserts that federal landholdings increase local taxes — but again, never explains this rationale.
At the end of the day, I fail to see how the land sale would accomplish any of the senator’s stated goals; making it a plan with very little upside, and tremendous downside.
Senator Lee could not be more clear about his intentions to try something like this again in the future. So while the imminent threat is gone, expect to see another version of the bill crop up later.
If you’d like to be informed about future attempts to sell federal land, subscribe to Quandary Magazine.
Thank you for reading!