The tax bill moving through Congress is about “reconciling” differences between the nation’s income and its expenditures. That’s why you’re hearing so much about the Reconciliation process, which also, conveniently, only requires a simple major rather than the standard two-thirds majority to pass in the Senate.
Thanks to the diverse showing of outrage across the nation, now Mike Lee must do some internal reconciling over his proposal in the massive tax bill to sell off large swaths of public lands.
Many cross-sections of rural, urban, liberal and conservative corners of the nation have taken the Utah lawmaker to task for his proposal that’s designed to help raise revenue to justify tax cuts for the wealthy. Senator Lee, who chairs the powerful Energy and Natural Resources Committee for Republicans in Washington, has also come under fire from the Senate Parliamentarian — who proclaimed that his provision was not germane to be in the budget reconciliation legislation. More importantly, many of Lee’s Republican colleagues in the Senate started speaking out. The backlash is a turn of events that now forces Lee to scale back his pernicious effort, which would have allowed developers to take their pick from hundreds of millions of acres across the west.
Think about all the new developments near your favorite National Park or Monument, on rangelands, in sacred spaces, and elsewhere.
As it stands, Lee has publicly said his proposal now excludes Forest Service land and will only subject Bureau of Land Management holdings within five miles of a population center to disposal.
While the smaller scope takes a lot of land off the table, it concerns us because it is the type of thing that developers in Las Vegas would absolutely love. There are some other provisions in the works like Freedom Zones. How population centers and Freedom Zones are ultimately defined in the bill is still anyone’s guess. But we can infer that all of these things will take water — and lots of it. But that discussion, of course, is not something we will hear on the Senate floor.
Additionally, we don’t yet know if Senator Lee will try to ram and jam some provisions for the Lake Powell Pipeline in the Senate bill. That was a tactic that Lee’s colleague, Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy, tried doing in the U.S. House version of the tax bill.
President Trump wants the bill passed by July 4. There aren’t many working days between now and the holiday. So we will see what happens and keep you informed of the latest.
Keep sending emails to your representatives, calling Mike Lee’s office, and talking with your friends and neighbors about this proposal.
We have done a few in-person and virtual events with the Sierra Club in the past month on all the land sale issues. We’ve been joined by businesses, elected officials, and public interest advocates who all agree: these efforts are bad for our water supply, our pocketbooks, and our future.
