The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee proposes adding the sale of up to 3 million acres of public lands to the budget reconciliation bill making its way through Congress. Note: The reconciliation process is a shortcut for controversial policy, since it’s exempt from the filibuster in the Senate. For more information, check out the ‘What the heck is budget reconciliation?’ fact sheet below.

The House Natural Resources Committee votes to sell off more than 500,000 acres of public lands in a late-night amendment to reconciliation legislation. After widespread public outcry and leadership from the bipartisan Public Lands Caucus — including Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse — sell-off was stripped from the bill.

The White House releases President Trump’s 2026 budget request to Congress. It calls for “opening up Federal lands” for housing development, giving away “certain [National Park] properties to State-level management,” and “increasing State authority over land management within their borders.” The budget request only serves as a formal guide for Congress, which ultimately holds the power of the purse.

Reports from inside the Interior Department indicate that the administration is expected to remove protections from six national monuments: Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon and Ironwood Forest in Arizona, Chuckwalla in California, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in New Mexico, and Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.

Journalists publish an internal Interior Department plan, much of which reads like a wish list for developers. The draft document calls for both the “release” of public lands for housing development and for giving away “heritage lands and sites to the states.”

Interior Secretary Doug Bergum and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner suggest that “much of” the nation’s public lands are “suitable for residential use.” This comes as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) simultaneously dismantles the very agencies and resources needed to address access to affordable housing.

In a midnight executive order, President Trump appears to roll back two national monuments—Chuckwalla and Sattitla Highlands in California—to open protected public lands to “economic development and energy production.” The language has since been removed from the White House website and the status of the monuments remains unclear.

The Trump administration guts federal land management agencies, undermining their capacity to effectively manage our public lands and setting the stage to justify their privatization. Some 2,300 employees are fired at the Department of the Interior and 3,400 Forest Service employees are fired at the Department of Agriculture. Their futures remain uncertain as the firings move through the courts.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund, a state-owned investment fund often paid for by surplus revenue from natural resources development or trade. Given that the U.S. is some $36 trillion in debt, it is unclear where a budget surplus would come from. Because the oil and gas industry is already drilling at record rates, officials in the Trump administration may point to selling public lands as the best option for funding.

During his confirmation hearing, Interior Secretary Doug Bergum calls for the development of public lands to pay down the national debt. “[The land and the minerals] are the balance sheet of America,” Bergum says. “If we were a company, they would look at us and say, ‘Wow, you are really restricting your balance sheet. You know what those assets are worth?’”

A document leaks that lists “Sell Federal Land” as one item on a menu of “reconciliation” priorities outlined by Republicans in Congress. Reconciliation is a special legislative process to quickly advance fiscal priorities. In the Senate, reconciliation bills do not need to meet the 60-vote threshold.

Congress passes a rules package that clears the path for public lands sell-off by directing the federal government to ignore lost revenue when transferring lands to state and local governments.

Utah files a lawsuit to seize control of 18.5 million acres of public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, but we fully expect Utah’s legal attacks to continue—now with new allies in the Trump administration.