June 24, 2025 01:46 PM UTC

Senate Parliamentarian Saves Republicans From Public Land Sale Fiasco

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Reps. Joe Neguse (D) and Jeff Hurd (R) issue a bipartisan statement blasting the now-dead public land sale provision in the GOP budget bill:

Today, Congressmen Joe Neguse (CO-02) and Jeff Hurd (CO-03), who together represent Colorado’s Western Slope, issued the following statement after the Senate parliamentarian ruled Monday evening to remove provisions that sell off America’s public lands from the budget reconciliation bill currently making its way through the Congress. The lawmakers represent rural and mountain communities across the state and continue to urge that a proposal along these lines be excluded from the final text. Neguse and Hurd worked successfully to strip an amendment from the House-passed text that would have mandated the sale of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Utah and Nevada.

“Colorado’s public lands belong to the people and are held in trust for future generations. They don’t belong to political appointees or outside interests. Neither of our districts asked for this land sale, and any efforts to sell off these shared spaces are deeply unpopular with the hunters, ranchers, fishermen, recreationists, conservationists, and outdoor enthusiasts we are proud to represent in Congress. Republican or Democrat—representing red, purple, or blue districts—one sentiment continues to ring true: public lands are not for sale.”

“As consideration of the budget reconciliation bill continues, we must remain united in ensuring that its text excludes provisions that would permit the widespread sale or transfer of these treasured places. It’s time for folks on both sides of the aisle to come together for the common good and stand with us in our bipartisan effort to be good stewards of America’s prized public lands.”

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As the Denver Post’s Elise Schmelzer reports, one of the more radical proposals floated in the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate as part of the reconciliation budget process known in aggregate as the “We’re All Going To Die Act,” the sell-off of millions of acres of public lands especially in Western states like Colorado to raise more revenue to give away to the wealthiest Americans, has been axed by the Senate parliamentarian as extraneous to the budget bill’s limited scope:

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled late Monday that the sale of up to 3.3 million acres of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property falls outside the scope of the rules for the Republican-drafted reconciliation bill, according to a news release from Democrats on the U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget. That means proponents of the sale must either attempt to rewrite the provision so it fits Senate rules or drop it from the budget bill.

Conservation groups cheered the development Tuesday morning.

“This is a victory for the American public, who were loud and clear: Public lands belong in public hands, for current and future generations alike,” Tracy Stone-Manning, the president of the Wilderness Society, said in a statement. “We trust the next politician who wants to sell off public lands will remember that people of all stripes will stand against that idea. Our public lands are not for sale.”

Utah Sen. Mike Lee has vowed to keep trying with a more limited version of his public land sale extravaganza, but fellow Western Republican Senators have expressed their own reservations about the proposal–and outside of the reconciliation process, Lee faces an impossible task coming up with sixty votes to move the proposal forward. What we have in the end is another example of the Senate’s arcane rules and powerful rulekeepers saving majority Republicans from their own bad ideas, presenting a powerful argument for why the Senate’s often-frustrating rules meant ultimately to protect the minority against a radical majority exist. Had this provision made it into law, it would have resulted in encroachment on public lands that couldn’t be undone.

The parliamentarian has also nixed or required significant changes to other provisions of the bill from immigration enforcement to food assistance as part of the still-ongoing “Byrd bath” process. None of these changes so far have altered the fundamental conflict within the Republican majority between lawmakers in both chambers who believe they are going too far versus those angry the bill does not go far enough. For Democrats, there is no constructive participation in this fundamentally broken process to be had, only the hope that it dies at the hands of opposing Republican majority factions who cannot bridge their divide.

Along the way, let it be known Republicans had some even worse ideas that thankfully didn’t get far this time.