Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
Senate takes another run at public lands
A public lands selloff is back on the table as part of the Senate’s contribution to the GOP’s budget bill.
A selloff provision was stripped out of the House version, but Sen Mike Lee, R-Utah, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, included a mandate for the sale of more than 2 million acres of federal land in the GOP’s sweeping tax cut package released Wednesday.
It’s hard to know how Colorado could be affected. Land in 11 Western states would be eligible for sale. Montana was carved out of the proposal after lawmakers there objected.
Presumably, Colorado’s senators would be opposed to any selloff provision, but they’re Democrats, so their objections don’t figure into the GOP’s math for passage. Back in April, Montana’s two Republican senators — Tim Sheehy and Steve Daines — joined Democrats in voting for a failed amendment that would have blocked federal lands from being sold off to reduce the federal deficit.
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.
No one can say which parcels could be on the auction block. Lee’s proposal directs the secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to sell or transfer at least 0.5% and up to 0.75% of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management holdings. That’s at least 2.1 million acres.
The proposal excludes the sale of lands with valid existing rights, which include mining claims, grazing permits, mineral leases, or rights-of-way. In the Grand Valley area, only the Lunch Loops would meet the sale criteria.
Even though we know the public outcry would be swift and furious if the Lunch Loops were nominated for consideration, it’s still unsettling that it’s vulnerable for disposal under Lee’s proposal. Durango’s Animas Mountain area and a section of Gunnison’s Hartman Rocks area are also vulnerable.
Colorado’s U.S. senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper — who have been strong advocates for keeping public lands in public hands — are certain to oppose the selloff provision among other objections. But if the Senate version of the budget bill passes with Lee’s provision included, the bill will return to the House, where Rep. Jeff Hurd would have an opportunity to refuse to vote for it unless the land sale language is removed.
Now would be a good time for Hurd to reassert his stance on public lands. He’s on the record as saying he would continue to oppose land management legislation that doesn’t include local stakeholders in decision-making. There’s nothing in Lee’s proposal that would prevent agencies from selling off swaths of public land, even when communities are opposed.