Sale of local public lands removed from ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ ahead of Senate vote

An earlier draft of the bill would have made millions of acres of public lands eligible to be sold, including much of the forest in Routt County.

An earlier version of the bill would have opened up broad swaths of public lands in Routt County for potential sale. (Dylan Anderson/The Yampa Valley Bugle)

Utah Sen. Mike Lee said he was backing down from an attempt to include the sale of millions of acres of public land in President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” on Saturday, according to reporting from Politico.

In a statement posted to X, Lee said the strict rules of budget reconciliation — a strategy that allows bills to be passed with a simple majority — hampered his attempt to include safeguards in the land sale provisions that would ensure land isn’t sold to corporate or foreign interests. Saying there was “misinformation” and “outright lies” about the bill, Lee added that there were also some “sincere concerns.”

“I continue to believe that the federal government owns far too much land — land it is mismanaging and in many cases ruining for the next generation,” Lee said in the statement. “President Trump promised to put underutilized federal land to work for American families, and I look forward to helping him achieve that.”

An earlier version of Lee’s bill would have opened up broad swaths of public lands in Routt County for potential sale, including popular areas like trails on Buffalo Pass and the hike up Hahns Peak. Officials in Routt County mobilized in recent weeks to oppose the proposed land sale, including sending letters to federal representatives.

The Routt County Commissioner Sonja Macys reiterated their opposition to land sales in the bill in a letter dated June 28. Among several reasons why they opposed the land sales, Macys outlined how a poll published by Field and Stream in April showed 74% of of respondents opposed the sale of public lands.

“We ask you to remove the proposal from the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ as all it does is enable the highly unpopular sale of public lands, sever the public from the process, and unduly empower the Secretary of the Interior,” Macys wrote.

Removing the land sale provision from the bill likely makes way for the U.S. Senate to vote on the measure as early as Monday, according to Politico.