UPDATE 06/25/2025: A provision to sell millions of acres of public land has been pulled from the Congressional budget bill because it violates the Senate’s rules for the procedure Republicans are trying to use to fast-track the bill. Utah’s Mike Lee, who crafted the original proposal, said he will rewrite it in an attempt to get it back into the bill. Lee said the new version would “include only Bureau of Land Management land within 5 miles of a population center and exempt U.S. Forest Service lands altogether.” See the Alaska Beacon story about this turn of events HERE. Also see a story from and hunting and fishing perspective in Field and Stream HERE.
ORIGINAL POST
Current language in the budget bill being crafted in Congress would require that the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service sell off land to alleviate the current housing shortage. This issue has been developing quickly and creating a lot of concern. Below is an article slated for the July edition of the Alaska Trails newsletter and Interior Alaska Trails Newsletter. It was written by me with help from Haley Johnston, Alaska Trails executive director. I am publishing it now in the hopes of offering clarity to a volatile situation and to encourage people to speak up.
And here’s the first update from an Alaska Beacon STORY:
The proposed language states that the sold land “shall be used solely for the development of housing or to address associated community needs,” and that the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture can determine whether the sold land is being used for an appropriate purpose.
Language like “associated community needs” can be tricky because it is vague.
Story
An attempt is being made in Congress to sell between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of public land across 11 Western states, including Alaska.
Ordinarily, a bill would need 60 votes in the Senate to bypass its filibuster rule. But Republicans are advancing the “Big, Beautiful Bill” under a complicated process called reconciliation. If successful, the process means that a bill can pass with 51 votes, or 50 if it’s supported by the vice president’s tiebreaking vote.
According to a recent Outside Magazine Article,
…the reconciliation bill’s language dictates that “not less than 0.50 percent and not more than 0.75 percent” of all BLM land be sold to the private sector, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior. Identical language and percentages dictate the sale of National Forest land as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture.
The BLM manages 245 million total acres, and the Forest Service manages 193 million acres. Under the plan’s rules, up to 3.29 million acres of public lands would be placed on the auctioning block.
In Alaska, BLM and US Forest Service land offers access to a wide variety of recreation opportunities and helps to support the Outdoor Recreation economy. Beloved recreation areas like the Chugach National Forest, BLM lands within Chugach State Park’s boundary, the Tongass National Forest, BLM lands along the Denali Highway and the White Mountains north of Fairbanks could be eligible for sale to private entities. This MAP shows BLM and US Forest Service land in the United States.
Current language states that the land must be sold off to alleviate housing shortages, but what the final language will be is yet to be determined. That makes many public lands advocates nervous.
Activists from many sectors – trail users, hunting and fishing advocates, environmentalists – are calling for people to oppose this move by writing to their senators. The American Hiking Society has organized a letter signed by 113 organizations opposed to the move. You can see it HERE.
If you’d like to learn more:
REI Cooperative Action has a way to act HERE.
As always, if you are concerned about access to public lands or the process used to transfer public lands to private ownership – reach out to our elected officials. Senator Murkowski’s office can be reached at: (202)-224-6665 and Senator Sullivan’s office can be reached at: (202) 224-3004
The effort to sell off public land under the reconciliation of the current “Big Beautiful Bill” now in front of the Republican controlled legislature should be eliminated! It does not solve the massive federal budget deficit and will not solve the housing shortage facing the country. All it accomplishes is to transfer choice public land from public use and enjoyment to the wealthy private sector without any oversight. It is a thinly disguised way for the wealthy to garner more land for their own use. Available land is not the primary issue regarding the cost of new affordable housing. The country needs “sustainable” revenue without selloff of our land assets. We need to raise the taxes on the wealthy!
Thanks Bruce. See my latest update. The provision has been pulled, but Sen. Lee wants to attempt a much more scaled back version. I still think this is better dealt with on a case-by-case basis. If there is BLM land near an urban area that can help reduce a specific housing problem, then the local authorities should hold public hearings and make the case for it. It’s possible this might make sense in certain, specific cases. But a big, blunt bill isn’t the tool for that.