Sell-off in the Senate Budget Bill!
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Sell-off in the Senate Budget Bill! ∎
Help when it’s needed most
Carefully curated actions designed to help Colorado fight back effectively. Some assignments will be serious, some will be silly — all will make a difference.
Current action
The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which is currently before the Senate, includes a provision to sell off up to 3 million acres of national public lands in states across the West, including Colorado. Tell our Senators to hold the line — public lands sell-off has no place in our national budget. Not today and not ever.
This matters! Collective action has already made a difference for our public lands. Together, we were able to pressured lawmakers in the House to strip public lands sales from their version of the budget bill. Let’s make it happen in the Senate!
Tell our Senators:
Keep public lands sales out of the budget
Dear Senator Bennet and Senator Hickenlooper,
As a proud Coloradan who cares deeply about public lands, I urge you to vote NO on the budget reconciliation bill.
The bill would sell off our national public lands, weaken environmental accountability, and cut the public out of decisions that affect Colorado’s future. It puts industry first — and Coloradans last.
Thank you for your leadership on public lands. I urge you to keep standing up for our outdoor heritage — and the public process that protects it.
Sincerely,
Your Name
dIG DEEPER
The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act” fundamentally redefines the relationship between Americans and their shared public lands. The bill creates a system where industry interests are prioritized, environmental safeguards are bypassed, and the voices of Coloradans — and the expertise of our public land managers — are silenced.
This is about taking the public out of public lands. It boils down to fast-tracking development and paving the way for industry priorities by cutting you out of decisions that impact your public lands, your communities, and your futures.
It’s a whole lot of bad, but that’s what we’re here for. Here’s what you should keep your eye on:
The bill would sell off up to 3 million acres of national public lands. It mandates the disposal of a minimum of 2 million acres and as many as 3 million acres of public lands, without consulting the American people.
The bill catastrophically cuts funding to federal agencies like the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service. These are the agencies who steward our most iconic lands, mitigate and fight wildfires, and care for our trails, campgrounds, and access points.
The bill favors private companies at the expense of public input.
The bill allows industry to buy their way out of public oversight. By paying a fee for an environmental review, companies can purchase immunity from future legal challenges.
The bill changes the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into a hollowed-out box checking exercise. NEPA is a bedrock environmental law, designed to ensure scientific-rigor and public input. But under the bill, companies would be able to pay for an expedited review process that devalues analysis of environmental and human health impacts and reduces public participation.
The bill’s heavy emphasis on expediting oil and gas development, mining, and timber extraction would cause long-term damage to Colorado’s climate.
The bill delays the implementation of a methane fee, allowing oil and gas producers to continue emitting this dangerous pollutant.
The bill mandates aggressive targets for resource extraction, while undermining oversight and the public’s ability to weigh in.
The bill fails to get a good deal for Coloradans.
The bill reduces the royalty rates that oil and gas companies who extract public resources from public lands pay from 16.67% to 12.5%. Despite slashing budgets and firing thousands of public employees to save money, this single provision would cause nearly $5 billion in lost revenue over the next ten years, followed by an average of $2 billion lost per year thereafter.