Senior Interior Department officials provided Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee with feedback and data last year ahead of his contentious and ultimately failed effort to sell large swaths of public lands, according to internal messages.
The Utah Republican last year unveiled a plan to sell up to 3 million acres of federal land in the West, an idea opposed by fellow Republicans like Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke.
Lee pitched the plan during Republican deliberations on what became the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It went further than an Interior Department initiative to potentially transfer some public land for housing on the edge of Western population centers.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum publicly downplayed White House’s interest in Lee’s proposal last year. That doesn’t mean his department wasn’t in talks with the senator.
