by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
The Daily Sentinel
During the 2024 campaign, President Trump suggested addressing affordable housing shortages by selling federal land for housing. He understands that the government controls nearly a third of the land in America but may not have anticipated what a firestorm would be ignited by the idea of selling some of it.
A year later, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced legislation to implement that plan, requiring the government to sell small parcels where it could help address housing shortages.
I am a fan of Sen. Lee, now chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, with jurisdiction over most federal lands. He is highly educated, well-spoken, a constitutional scholar, and a shrewd strategist — although with a somewhat different perspective on federal lands than many other westerners. After all, he represents Utah, the one state that went to court demanding federal lands be turned over to the state.
Sen. Lee, a great historian, certainly knows that when Interior Secretary James Watt proposed selling some federal land 40 years ago, he was nearly run out of Washington. Knowing the controversy surrounding any disposal of public lands, Lee got the measure added to the pending reconciliation bill, Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” because it would only need 51 Senate votes, not the usual 60.
