June 3, 2025 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUWA Statement on Senator Lee’s Intent to Reintroduce Public Lands Sell-off Amendment in Senate Budget Bill- 6.3.25

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 – Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has announced his intent to reintroduce a Public Lands Sell-off Amendment, a similar version of which was recently rejected by the House, into the FY25 Budget Reconciliation Bill currently being considered by the Senate. The House version of the 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. Background information and a statement from SUWA DC Director Travis Hammill can be found below.

“Senator Lee’s avowed and oft-stated hatred of public lands makes him a true outlier in the Senate. His apparent intention to include a public lands sell-off provision in the Budget Bill, which was fiercely opposed in the House, is wildly out of step with what Americans have made clear that they want to see: federal public lands remaining in public hands,” said Travis Hammill, DC Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “These are the places people recreate with their families, they are places to hunt and fish, and they are held in trust for the American people to enjoy for generations to come. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, our members, and our partners will work to defeat this deeply misguided effort.”

Background information:

A similar 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. The Committee voted 23-18 to allow this amendment and ultimately voted along party lines in favor of the entire bill. The amendment was removed from the Bill prior to its passage in the full House on May 21th. 

Regarding the public lands proposed for sale in Utah, the language of the amendment contained no requirements for public use and no limitations on how the lands could 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 attempted to put 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.