May 21, 2025 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUWA Statement on Removal of Public Lands Sell-off Amendment from House Budget Bill – 5.21.25

Amendment would have sold off 11,000+ acres of public land in Utah

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 – House Republicans have removed the Public Lands Sell-off Amendment from the FY25 Budget Reconciliation Bill. The amendment from Reps. Celeste Maloy and Mark Amodei 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. Background information and a statement from SUWA DC Director Travis Hammill can be found below:

“As we hoped would be the case, Rep. Maloy’s stunt failed. She’s just the latest in a long list of politicians with the bad idea to try and sell off public lands,” said Travis Hammill, DC Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “The through line of those failed efforts is this: love of public lands transcends geography and political party. Americans don’t want to see these lands sold off and time and time again have risen up to make their voices heard.”

Background information:

The amendment was introduced by Mark Amodei (R-NV-2) and Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT-2) during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on May 6th, 2025, without an opportunity for review by other members of Congress or the public. The Committee voted 23-18 to allow this amendment and ultimately, along party lines, in favor of the entire bill. The amendment, now part of the larger House Reconciliation Bill, also passed the Budget Committee on May 18. 

Contrary to statements by Rep. Maloy, the language of the amendment regarding public lands in Utah includes no requirements for public use and no limitations on how the lands can be used once sold — meaning they may be developed for golf courses, luxury resorts, strip malls, private vacation homes, or simply flipped for sale again. Public lands at risk in Utah include: 

• parcels within Beaver Dam Wash and Red Cliffs National Conservation Areas—areas Congress designated to conserve and protect spectacular natural and cultural resources. 
• parcels within the Santa Clara River Reserve, which protects open space and has many recreational opportunities. 
• parcels within the Santa Clara/Gunlock and Red Bluff Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, as well as land within the Red Mountain Wilderness. 
• several parcels contiguous to Zion National Park, one of the most visited national parks in the nation and an economic engine for Washington County. The tracts proposed for sale include a 300-acre mesa outside the small town of Rockville, as well as tracts at popular Zion-area trailheads. 
• Other parcels cut though habitat for the desert tortoise, a species listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act, as well as habitat for mule deer and desert bighorn sheep.

In Nevada, Rep. Amodei is putting hundreds of thousands of acres of land on the auction block, many of them already envisioned for sprawling developments outside of Nevada’s cities. Concerning elements of the amendment in Nevada include:

• As much as 100,000 acres or more of public land to be sold in Clark County, in and around Las Vegas, including tens of thousands of acres of pristine desert tortoise habitat to build a new sprawling city in the open desert stretching to the California border.
• More than 40,000 acres of public land to be sold in Washoe County, massively increasing the urban footprint of Reno, a city already struggling with overwhelming traffic, a lack of adequate infrastructure, strained water resources, and increasing air pollution.
• More than 300,000 acres of public land to be sold in Pershing County, supposedly “resolving” the checkerboard land ownership pattern in the area but in reality simply transferring much of the county into private hands.
• As much as 10,000 acres of public land in Pershing County would be sold directly to mining companies who already have mining infrastructure on the land, allowing them to circumvent federal environmental protection laws in the future.

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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 a world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.