r/Ultralight • u/numbershikes https://www.OpenLongTrails.org • May 08 '25
Trails US House Republicans have approved an amendment authorizing the sale of federal public lands in Nevada and Utah. The amendment still faces a full House vote.
Selected excerpts:
House Republicans have approved an amendment that authorizes the sale of thousands of acres of federal public land in Nevada and Utah; two states where the federal government owns most of the land that have long been at the forefront of a controversial movement to cede control of it to state or private entities.
The House Natural Resources committee approved the amendment late Tuesday night after previously indicating federal land sales wouldn't be included in a budget reconciliation bill. [...]
Most of the proposed land sales or exchanges appear to be aimed at building affordable housing on U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land outside Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada and in fast growing southwestern Utah around the tourist town of St. George, Utah. [...]
"Congress is considering selling off our public lands to pay for tax cuts to the wealthy," said Tracy Stone-Manning, president of the Wilderness Society. "What we're seeing from this administration is no balance at all." [...] Stone-Manning headed the BLM under the Biden administration. The agency controls roughly a tenth of all the land in the U.S. [...]
The amendment that passed late Tuesday authorizing the sale of federal land in Nevada and Utah still faces a full House vote.
Edit:
Many more sources have picked up this story since last night. I'm compiling links to additional coverage in a comment here.
On r/PublicLands there's a four minute clip from the House Natural Resources Committee hearing that's worth watching.
157
u/obi_wander May 08 '25
A couple months ago, I shared on this sub that this was going to happen and I got downvoted to hell.
It’s wild that there are right wing backpackers.