America First - Or Billionaires First? The Public Land Selloff Question
The GOP's Potential Selloff Of Federal Land Threatens A Century Of Bipartisan Conservation
As part of their sweeping tax cut package, House Republicans have added a provision authorizing the sale of federal lands - excluding national parks and certain protected areas.
Since the early 20th century, U.S. federal lands have been set aside for public enjoyment, as well as conservation and ecological preservation.
By selling these lands off, it violates a long-standing bipartisan commitment. The land being sold off could be used for economic development, infrastructure and mining projects, and affordable housing.
For instance, in Nevada - there’s 200,000 acres up for grabs in Clark County (which includes Las Vegas). As Associated Press is so apt to point out, that’s a mere 1% of the state’s 50 million acres of federal land.
This useless factoid is being reported as if to soften the blow of such an unprecedented provision enabling the private sale of federal land.
Representative Ryan Rinke of Montana, and notably the former interior secretary in Trump’s first administration, said before voting on the provision that he was drawing a “red line” on the sale of federal land:
“It’s a no now. It will be a no later. It will be a no forever”
The measure is headed to the Senate, where Democrats and moderate Republicans have expressed skepticism, raising concern for the lack of oversight and the bill’s vague nature.
The bill lacks clarity on the criteria of potential land for sale with environmental groups also ringing alarm bells for potential misuse and long-term damage to American nature and land.
Another argument to be made is that federal land is not typically even suitable for a concept such as affordable housing. The farther away this land is from cities and towns, the more infrastructure will be required - such as sewage, roads, and public transportation.
While the provision excludes national parks, it sets a dangerous precedent normalizing the sale of land once considered part of America’s shared history.
The framing of this measure - making it seem fiscally responsible or necessary for development - ignores the long-term environmental costs, logistical impracticalities of developing remote land, and the erosion of a bipartisan focus on conservation.
It’s not solely about acres on a map. It’s about the shifting of values away from public good toward private gain. Corporate interests already dominate so much of American life, handing over even a silver of our public lands risks accelerating America further into a corporate dystopia.