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Fox News
29-06-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Mike Lee preemptively drops 'big beautiful bill' provision to sell federal lands that riled GOP colleagues
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee preemptively withdrew a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Saturday evening that would have allowed for the sale of federal lands for development after widespread outrage among his conservative colleagues. "Over the past several weeks, I've spent a lot of time listening to members of the community, local leaders, and stakeholders across the country. While there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation – and in some cases, outright lies – about my bill, many people brought forward sincere concerns," Lee said in a message posted to his X account on Saturday evening. Lee, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he pulled the provision after he failed to secure "safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families," and not to China or corporations. The Senate parliamentarian ruled on Monday that the provision's original language did not comply with strict rules related to what could be included in reconciliation legislation, with Lee's office resubmitting the provision with new language before pulling it altogether on Saturday evening. Lee said he maintains his long-held position that the U.S. government owns too much land that is often mismanaged and leaves Americans, most notably in Western states, with higher tax burdens. "I continue to believe the federal government owns far too much land – land it is mismanaging and in many cases ruining for the next generation," Lee wrote in his post. "Under Democratic presidents, massive swaths of the West are being locked away from the people who live there, with no meaningful recourse." Lee had included a mandate for sales of millions of acres of federal lands in a draft provision of the tax cut package earlier this month. He preemptively pulled the provision on Saturday ahead of a procedural vote, as a handful of Republican lawmakers in both chambers publicly denounced the provision and said they would vote against the bill if it was included. "We've got the votes to strike it," Montana Sen. Steve Daines said Thursday of Lee's provision. "We're ready." "I agree with my colleagues that the federal government has mismanaged federal lands for decades. But I don't agree with their solution. The solution is not to sell public lands. The solution is better management. Let's send legislation to POTUS desk to improve management and access. I remain a no on the senate reconciliation bill," Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke posted to X last week ahead of Lee pulling the provision. Zinke served as President Donald Trump's secretary of the Department of the Interior during his first administration. "The people of Idaho have been clear – we do NOT support the sale of our public lands to the highest bidder. I am proud to help lead the effort to remove this provision from the One Big Beautiful Bill," Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch posted to X after Lee said he would pull the provision. Lawmakers are on a tight 4th of July deadline to get the legislation, which will advance Trump's agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt, to the president's desk. Senate Republicans successfully carried the legislation over a procedural hurdle late on Saturday after hours of negotiations.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A Republican plan to sell off millions of acres of public lands is no more — for now
A controversial proposal to sell off millions of acres of public lands across Western states — including large swaths of California — was stripped Monday from Republican's tax and spending bill for violating Senate rules. Senator Mike Lee (R–Utah) had advanced a mandate to sell up to 3.3 million acres of public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management for the stated purpose of addressing housing needs — an intent that opponents didn't believe was guaranteed by the language in the provision. Late Monday, Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian — who advises the government body on interpreting procedural rules — determined the proposal didn't pass muster under the the Byrd Rule, which prevents the inclusion of provisions that are extraneous to the budget in a reconciliation bill. The move initially appeared to scuttle Lee's plan, which has drawn bipartisan backlash. But Lee, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, took to the social media platform X to say the fight wasn't over. 'Yes, the Byrd Rule limits what can go in the reconciliation bill, but I'm doing everything I can to support President Trump and move this forward,' Lee wrote in a post Monday night. In the post, he outlined changes, including removing all Forest Service land and limiting eligible Bureau of Land Management land to an area within a radius of five miles of population centers. He wrote that housing prices are 'crushing young families,' and suggested that his proposed changes would alleviate such economic barriers. Utah's Deseret News reported that Lee submitted a revised proposal with new restrictions on Tuesday morning. Environmentalists and public land advocates celebrated MacDonough's decision to reject Lee's proposal, even as they braced for an ongoing battle. 'This is a significant win for public lands,' said Jennifer Rokala, executive director for Center for Western Priorities, in a statement. 'Thankfully, the Senate parliamentarian has seen Senator Lee's ridiculous attempt to sell off millions of acres of public lands for what it is — an ideological crusade against public lands, not a serious proposal to raise revenue for the federal government." Lydia Weiss, senior director of government relations for the Wilderness Society, a conservation nonprofit, described the rejection of the proposal as 'deafening.' 'And the people across the West who raised their voices to reject the idea of public land sales don't seem particularly interested in a revised bill,' she added. 'They seem interested in this bad idea going away once and for all.' The proposal, before it was nixed, would have made more than 16 million acres of land in California eligible for sale, according to the Wilderness Society. Vulnerable areas included roadless stretches in the northern reaches of the Angeles National Forest, which offer recreation opportunities to millions of people living in the Los Angeles Basin and protects wildlife corridors, the group said. Other at-risk areas included portions of San Bernardino, Inyo and Cleveland national forests as well as BLM land in the Mojave Desert, such as Coyote Dry Lake Bed outside of Joshua Tree National Park. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
E&E News
24-06-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
Murkowski expresses ‘openness' to becoming independent
Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she has an 'openness' to leaving the Republican Party and becoming independent, under certain circumstances. Asked by journalist Galen Druke if she would ever become an independent and join the Senate's Democratic Caucus, Murkowski left that scenario open. 'There may be that possibility,' she said in an excerpt of an interview Druke posted to X. 'There is some openness to exploring something different than the status quo.' Advertisement Murkowski, a former chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee who has a centrist record on matters like abortion rights, health care and climate change, is promoting her new memoir, 'Far from Home: An Alaskan Senator Faces the Extreme Climate of Washington, D.C.,' which will be released Tuesday. She also chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing funding for the Interior Department and EPA.
E&E News
13-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Land sale plan draws GOP foes, but how hard will they fight?
Sen. Mike Lee's megabill plan to sell off millions of acres of public lands drew negative reactions from some Republican lawmakers Thursday, but it's not clear how hard they'll fight on the matter. Lee, a Utah Republican who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has long sought to turn federal lands over to state control. Now, he's seizing the opportunity. His committee's proposal for the Republican tax and spending bill would mandate the sale of up to 1.5 percent of federal lands across 11 states. In releasing text, summaries and a FAQ on Wednesday, the committee said the land sales were aimed at building 'millions of affordable homes,' though the bill text allows for a virtually unlimited range of uses. Advertisement Chief among the opponents of the plan is the Montana delegation. Public lands are especially popular in Montana — a likely factor in Lee's decision to exempt the state from the land sales. Crucially, both of the state's senators did not explicitly draw a red line on the provision when asked about it Thursday. 'I don't like it — I oppose the sale of public lands. The only part that I like about it is that it exempted Montana,' said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) in an interview after working with Lee in an attempt to pare back or nix public lands sales in the proposal. 'I pushed back strongly. I guess he heard me in terms of exempting Montana, which still doesn't make me happy with the overall bill.' When asked, Daines did not say he would tank the whole bill if the land sales remained in it. However, he did say he's planning to introduce an amendment to strip the sales. 'I'm gonna be pushing for an amendment vote, so we'll see,' Daines said. 'But the text is out, and I oppose it.' Daines' fellow Montanan in the Senate, Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy, also opposes the land sales, his spokesperson said. But Sheehy similarly did not explicitly threaten to vote against the bill if the land sales weren't removed. 'Senator Sheehy believes public lands belong in public hands and opposes the sale of public lands. He is pleased to see Montana exempted,' a Sheehy spokesperson said. Should Daines, Sheehy or any other Republican senator threaten to withhold their vote over the land sales, they would have significant leverage. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is eager to pass the Senate's version of the bill by Independence Day and has little wiggle room with many senators already expressing displeasure over various sections of the bill, like steep cuts to Medicaid or the $2.4-trillion-dollar hole the bill is projected to open in the federal deficit. The bill is being passed using budget reconciliation to skirt the Senate's 60-vote filibuster threshold. 'You need everybody's vote to pass the bill,' Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said Wednesday, while speaking about the public lands sales. 'Remember who won San Juan Hill?' It's not the first time public lands sales have proven a thorny issue in Republicans' quest to pass the bill that would boost President Donald Trump's domestic agenda. The House stripped a proposed sale of public lands from their version of the bill, which was inserted as an amendment from Reps. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) and Celeste Maloy (R-Utah) and would have sold off roughly 500,000 acres in Nevada and Utah — a fraction of Lee's proposed sales. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pulled the provision from the bill after protests from Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who threatened to withhold his vote unless the provisions were removed. Zinke could prove to be a problem for congressional leaders once again if the bill comes back to the House with land sales in it, and he vowed in an interview Thursday to fight Lee on the issue. 'Remember my comment that it was 'my San Juan Hill?'' Zinke said, referring to a famous charge by future President Theodore Roosevelt, a hero in the eyes of public lands defenders. 'I understand [Lee] said it was his, too, but remember who won San Juan Hill? Teddy Roosevelt,' Zinke said. 'We're coming after you' Democrats, though left out of the GOP's party-line budget reconciliation process, also vowed to fight the sale of public lands. Senate ENR ranking member Martin Heinrich said in an interview with POLITICO's E&E News that they plan to stir up public outrage to pressure Lee to back down. 'We need to engage the American people, because that's what worked in the past,' Heinrich said, noting a failed effort in the House to sell public lands that was led by former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who was forced to withdraw his measure after public outcry. 'I think this is a direct attack on our Western identity,' Heinrich said. 'This is an attack on every Westerner who owns a hunting license, a fishing license, a backpack or a mountain bike.' Indeed, outdoor groups are already speaking out. Land Tawney, co-chair of American Hunters and Anglers, said the bill is 'worse than the dog shit under Mike Lee's polished shoes,' and an 'in-your-face selloff of America's best idea—our public lands.' 'Any politician who supports this language is an enemy of public lands, and we're coming after you,' Tawney said. Heinrich said he would support the Montana delegation should they push for an amendment to kill the land sales. He also suggested they could have another, more procedural, way to fight it since the bill is being passed via reconciliation — a process that allows the Senate parliamentarian to ax provisions of the bill that are not related to the budget, which is required by the rules. Democrats could argue that the land sales are not germane to a reconciliation bill. ENR said they expect the sales to net between $5 billion and $10 billion over a 10-year period. 'We're gonna fight it through the process,' Heinrich said. 'This is clearly policy masquerading as a budget item, so we will engage the parliamentarian on this.'
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bucking trends, Topsham approves a smaller budget for next year
May 29—Topsham residents approved all articles up for vote at the annual town meeting Wednesday night, including those outlining the municipal budget for the upcoming fiscal year and the new Climate Action Plan. Voters backed a municipal budget totaling $14.13 million during the meeting at the Mt. Ararat High School Forum. The budget reflects a 2% decrease in municipal spending from the current fiscal year, which was kept low by cutting paving projects and contributions to reserve funds. The municipal budget plus the county tax and Topsham's contribution to Maine School Administrative District 75 make up the total town budget. The SAD 75 budget, which totals $57.88 million with contributions from four towns, will go to referendum vote on June 10. Within the proposed municipal budget, police is the highest-spending department at $2.55 million, followed by EMS and fire, public works, and capital programs. The town plans on funding a community paramedic position in the fire department this year, a post that has existed for two years but was previously funded by a grant. The Climate Action Plan, developed by the town Energy Committee with input from residents, is an outline for town projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase resilience to climate change. "Any project that looks promising will be presented to the Select Board for the intention of creating better preparedness, a healthier environment as well as monetary savings," Energy Committee Vice Chairperson Nick Whatley said during Wednesday's meeting. The plan calls for Topsham to adopt state goals on climate change, including decreasing greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 45% by 2030 and 80% by 2050, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. It also proposes several actions that town government can adopt to reach these goals, from investing in sustainable transportation and renewable energy to updating town properties with climate-friendly heat pumps, appliances and lighting. Copy the Story Link
