The sale of federal public lands will not make it through the Senate reconciliation process, Sen. Steve Daines told NOTUS on Thursday evening.
The Montana Republican said that he has enough votes to kill the public lands sale provision with an amendment, if the recently pared-down proposal from Utah Sen. Mike Lee to sell 1.2 million acres of federal land for housing makes it through the approvals process from the Senate parliamentarian.
Lee’s original proposal — to sell at least 2.2 million acres of federal public land — split the usually united front Western-state Republicans take on land issues, and sparked an immediate firestorm of consternation from left- and right-wing conservation, recreation and environmental groups alike.