By Micah Drew DAILY MONTANAN
Montana’s Republican senators over the weekend praised the removal of a provision to sell public lands from a federal budget reconciliation bill.
In a joint statement, U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy called the move “a victory for our Montana way of life.”
“We look forward to the final passage of the Big Beautiful Bill in order to prevent the largest tax increase in American history, secure the border, unleash American energy, and most importantly, implement President Trump’s America First agenda that Montanans – and folks across the country – overwhelmingly support and sent us here to enact.”
U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican who has led the push to sell off federal land for development, announced on social media over the weekend that he would not move forward with his provision as part of the One Big Beautiful bill before it advanced in the Senate. The move follows strong opposition from members of Montana’s Congressional delegation and other elected officials, especially from Western states, as well as myriad conservation and outdoors groups.
“I continue to believe the federal government owns far too much land — land it is mismanaging and in many cases ruining for the next generation,” Lee posted in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. He said that the budget reconciliation process did not let him secure “clear, enforceable safeguards” to ensure the land sales would go to families, rather than corporations or foreign interests.
Lee originally introduced a provision that sought to sell millions of acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land to address the affordable housing crisis, specifically near urban areas in the West, but the Senate parliamentarian ruled against including it in the budget bill. A subsequent, slimmed down proposal still faced opposition from members of Lee’s own party, notably congressmen from Montana and Idaho.
On Saturday, Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy posted on X that he opposed the sale of public land and would vote against proceeding with the bill if the provision was included. Shortly after, he said he would vote to move the bill along, but would lead an amendment to strip the land sales out.
Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, who previously led the charge to remove a different land sale from an earlier version of the bill and decried Lee’s provision as a “poison pill,” released a statement on Sunday in response to Lee withdrawing his proposal.
“The SEALs taught me to Never Quit and to always rely on my teammates. Both were keys to our public lands victory. We always had backup plans, and we had the greatest coalition of support I’ve seen. Public lands are not red or blue, they are red, white and blue. They belong to all of us whether we’re from Massachusetts or Montana,” Zinke said. “I greatly appreciate the work of my colleagues in the House and Senate who were leaders either publicly or behind closed doors, particularly Senators Sheehy, Daines, Crapo, Risch, Chairman Simpson, and Speaker Johnson. And Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum who made it clear that mass land sales was not the Trump agenda. They are the Rough Riders.”
Several conservation and outdoor recreation groups released statements praising the actions taken to remove the land sale provision from the bill.
Chris Wood, president and CEO of the conservation organization Trout Unlimited said in a statement that protecting public lands is the “most nonpartisan issue in the country.
“Public lands are the cornerstone of our conservation legacy, uniting us with the last best places this country has to offer. We thank the members of Congress who have joined hundreds of thousands of outdoorsmen and women in opposing widespread public land selloffs in reconciliation. This is certainly not the first attempt to privatize or transfer our public lands, and it won’t be the last. We must stay vigilant and defend the places we love to fish, hike, hunt, and explore,” Wood said.
On Monday, the Senate continued to slog through dozens of amendment votes on President Donald Trump’s priority policy proposal, which includes extending and expanding the Trump tax cuts enacted in 2017, adding restrictions to Medicaid, expanding investments in immigration and border policy, and making cuts to Biden-era climate change and student debt relief programs.
The Congressional Budget Office has reported that a version of the bill passed by the House last month would add more than $2 trillion to the federal deficit.
