Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee on Saturday gave up on a plan to sell public lands in the Republican megabill.
The Republican Utah lawmaker announced his decision as Senate leaders worked to round up enough support to win a key procedural vote to begin debate on the tax cut, energy and border spending legislation.
“President Trump promised to put underutilized federal land to work for American families, and I look forward to helping him achieve that in a way that respects the legacy of our public lands and reflects the values of the people who use them most,” Lee said in a statement.
Lee’s move comes after weeks of backlash from public lands groups and prominent Republicans in and out of Congress, which saw him whipsaw between fighting for his proposal and trying to appease his critics.
His final plan would have sold up to 0.5 percent of Bureau of Land Management land across 11 Western states to build affordable housing, down from up to 1.5 percent of all public land in an earlier iteration.
Lee’s decision preempts an amendment push by the Montana and Idaho Senate delegations to strip the land sales. It also avoids potential mutiny from five Republicans in the House, who had threatened to vote against the megabill if Lee’s measure was included.
Lee said he removed the sales because he was “unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families, not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests,” due to strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process.
