July 3, 2025 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUWA Statement on House Passage of the FY25 Budget Reconciliation Bill – 7.3.25
Contacts:
Travis Hammill, DC Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (202) 266-0472; travis@suwa.org
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Washington, DC – Today, the House of Representatives passed the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1, the FY25 budget reconciliation package (Budget Bill) known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. On July 1, the Senate passed H.R.1 by a vote of 51-50 with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie.
In the weeks leading up to today’s vote, House and Senate Republicans from Utah proposed public lands sell-off as part of the Budget Bill; in each case, this provision was removed in the face of national, bipartisan opposition:
- In the House, Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT-2) and Mark Amodei’s (R-NV-2) Amendment would have forced the sell-off of over 11,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed public land in Utah and at least 500,000 acres in Nevada. It was stripped on May 21.
- In the Senate, Senator and Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee Mike Lee (R-UT) attempted to include language that would have mandated the sell-off of millions of acres of federal lands across 11 Western states, including Utah; his final version focused on over a million acres of BLM land. It was removed on June 24.
“If Republicans cared about clean air and water, wildlife, or a livable planet for current and future generations, this bill would be dead in the water. But their priorities are clear. While we’re glad to see schemes to sell off public lands stripped from the Budget Bill, we are clear-eyed about the impacts of the rest of the bill: gutting tax credits for clean energy, attacking the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and creating new handouts to extractive industries – all of which will devastate wild public lands for decades to come,” said Travis Hammill, SUWA DC Director. “The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, our members, and our partners will continue to fight for the redrock wilderness and public lands.”
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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards this world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.
