Utah Sen. Mike Lee is scaling back his proposal mandating public land sales for housing in Western states, but key critics remain unconvinced.
The new version of the bill, obtained by the Mountain West News Bureau, would not allow any Forest Service land to be up for sale. Instead, it would target Bureau of Land Management (BLM) parcels within five miles of “population centers.” That would mean disposing of up to about one million acres within five years, down from more than 3 million in the original draft.
The changes follow the bill’s failure to meet the qualifications for the budget reconciliation process. That means it wouldn’t be able to avoid a filibuster and would need 60 votes to pass instead of a simple majority.
Lee also acknowledged he felt pushback from hunters. In a post on the platform X last weekend, addressed to “Hunter Nation,” he said, “You spoke, and I’m listening. I’ll be making changes in the coming days.”
He may have been speaking to a specific nonprofit named Hunter Nation, which counts Donald Trump Jr. among its foundation’s board members.
Nonetheless, 45 leaders of hunting companies signed a letter to senate leaders voicing their opposition to the bill.
“Selling public land at the scale of millions of acres will result in a loss of public access to the outdoors, which will have a negative impact to the undersigned businesses,” the letter states.
Brad Brooks, the founder and CEO of Argali, a lightweight hunting gear company based in Boise, Idaho, was among the signers. He said the group represents “the entire hunting industry,” from niche brands to major firearm and optics manufacturers.
“I have never seen the hunting industry, in my life, unite behind a cause like this,” he said. “I guess the one good thing about that I can thank Mike Lee for is that he has really united the hunting community around the idea of public lands. And everybody realizes this thing that we took for granted, clearly, is something that can be taken away from us.”
The nonprofit Hunter Nation did not respond to a question about its view on the revised proposal. For Brooks, the updates to the bill don’t change his outlook.
“I could care less how he tries to dress up this pig. I don't care,” he said.
Brooks, who lives in the city limits of Boise, said he can walk to hunt from his backyard, by accessing BLM land. He said these low-lying landscapes within the five-mile buffer of western cities are prime recreation zones. They’re also important for wildlife – where deer and elk come down from the mountains to spend the winter.
The Congressional Sportsmen Foundation, a group that works closely with lawmakers across party lines on issues important to hunters, anglers and trappers, is not satisfied with the public lands sale changes, either.
Jeff Crane, the President and CEO, said the organization is not categorically “anti-sale,” but thinks budget reconciliation is the wrong vehicle for such moves.
“These federal public lands belong to all Americans. And for us, they provide habitat for wildlife, and opportunities to go recreate on them,” he said. “Any efforts to dispose of those needs to be thoughtful, transparent and stakeholder driven.”
Even with the revisions, the bill could face a dead end. Five Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana) and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), said Sen. Lee’s continued push to include public lands sales in the package “would be a grave mistake, unforced error, and poison pill that will cause the bill to fail should it come to the House Floor.”
They said they will vote against the larger budget package if the public lands sales make it in.
