DENVER—The House Rules Committee has voted to advance the budget reconciliation bill. A provision to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in Nevada and Utah was struck from the bill text in a manager’s amendment released by House Republicans Wednesday evening.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Deputy Director Aaron Weiss.
“Clearly, selling off public lands is still a third rail for members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. While there is a housing affordability crisis in the West, looking to our public lands to solve the problem is disingenuous and will only hurt Westerners by increasing sprawl and cutting off access to the trails and public lands we all love.
“I’m grateful to our champions on both sides of the aisle, especially Representative Ryan Zinke, who fought against this misguided attack on our public lands.”