Reps. Hurd and Neguse (CO2) issued a strongly worded bipartisan statement of support on Tuesday about the removal of the sale of millions of acres of public lands from the bill.

Places such as the Book Cliffs — including part of Mount Garfield — Grand Mesa and its slopes, the Bangs Canyon area and the Uncompahgre would have been eligible for sale.

Lee is framing his proposal as a way to expand housing and support local development. Call us skeptical. The means to dispose of public lands for public purposes is already in place. That process should be utilized on a case-by-case basis, not rolled into a budget bill shrouded in convoluted language.

Today, it is with the greatest urgency, perhaps in the history of our nation, that we ask Rep. Jeff Hurd to reconsider his support of the House Natural Resources Committee’s budget reconciliation bill that after a middle-of-the-night amendment last week now includes a provision to sell approximately 500,000 acres of public land in Utah and Nevada.

Hurd can’t have it both ways. If he’s serious about keeping public lands in public hands, he must tell House leadership that he won’t support the final budget bill unless the land sales proposal is removed.

[T]he assault on federal lands is ramping up and Colorado can be a bulwark against it.

Coloradans must fight back. Gratefully, our representatives appear to be staging to do so. And a fight it will be.

America’s greatest asset — aside from our freedom — is our public lands.

We must not only preserve the lands we have but grow them in the face of our ever-increasing population, growth and development.

Jeff Hurd needs to take a clear stance on the potential sell-off of public lands.

The issue is buried under the Trump administration’s flurry of provocative moves aimed at trimming the size and scope of the federal government.