250 milion acres of public land would be sold in the Senate's Beautiful Bill

 Rolling Stone - A [Senate] provision unveiled this week would open nearly 250 million acres of public lands in the West, for sale to the highest bidder. The legislation would require that at least 3 million acres — an area about half the size of Vermont — be privatized in the next five years. 

The ugly provision was introduced by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who recently made himself notorious for shitposting about a political assasination in Minnesota. Lee’s committee touts this “mandatory disposal” of federal lands as a way to “fulfill President Trump’s agenda” by “unlocking federal land” to “increase the supply of housing,” while generating at least $5 billion. Speaking to fellow conspiratorial loon Glenn Beck, Lee defended the initiative as a “common-sense solution to a national problem.” Lee’s provision has the support of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board which alleges that “Uncle Sam” is “typically a poor steward of the land.”

This Senate provision creates a direct conflict with the House version of the Big Beautiful Bill. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) successfully fought to strip a similar provision from the House bill. The former Interior Secretary described privatization of public lands as his “red line,” noting: “Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isn’t creating more land.”