Comments come after Senate Republicans added a provision to their budget to sell three million acres of public land to bankroll tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper released the following statement on Senate Republicans’ proposal in the budget reconciliation bill to sell off three million acres of U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land.
“Our public lands are our most cherished heirlooms. They are American treasures that we hand down to future generations.
“The Republican budget from the Senate mandates the sell-off of three million acres of public lands.
“Washington is trying to tell Colorado what land is for sale. This is a top-down tyrannical execution of authority that strips Colorado and our local communities of our ties to some of our most sacred landscapes.
“Our public lands are not for sale now, or ever. We stopped a similar effort in the House — we’ll stop this one, too.”
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee recently released their budget reconciliation text. The bill mandates the BLM and the USFS each dispose of between 0.5% and 0.75% of their estate – between 2 to 3.3 million acres of federal land. The bill specifies that those sales will be mandated in Colorado and ten other western states.
In addition to the public lands sale provision, the bill rescinds Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding for the National Park Service (NPS) and BLM, including $267 million for NPS to pay for rangers, maintenance, emergency responders, and scientists. The bill would also eliminate IRA funding for updates to the electric grid, industrial decarbonization, and tribal energy loans.
Hickenlooper voted against the Republican budget resolution twice, and will vote against the budget bill again. In April, Hickenlooper led a group of Western senators to introduce an amendment to the budget bill to protect public lands from being sold to pay for Republicans’ tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. He took to the Senate floor to condemn the public lands sale provision in the House version of the bill. At the end of May, Hickenlooper held a press conference in Estes Park with Congressman Neguse, public lands advocates, and local elected officials to call out the Trump administration’s threats to Colorado’s national parks and public lands – including Rocky Mountain National Park.
###