5 House Republicans Say They’ll Sink Big Beautiful Bill If Land Selloff Is In It

If Utah Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee’s bid to sell off public lands winds up in the final Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, five House Republicans say they will vote as a bloc to torpedo the entire package.

Public lands sale language “would be a grave mistake, unforced error, and poison pill that will cause the bill to fail should it come to the House floor,” the quintet of lawmakers wrote in a Thursday letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Cowboy State Daily obtained the letter early Friday. The conservation-minded House Republicans who signed it are U.S. Reps. Ryan Zinke of Montana, Mike Simpson of Idaho, Cliff Bentz of Oregon, Dan Newhouse of Washington and David Valadao of California.

They noted Lee has scaled back his original proposal, but that’s not good enough, say the lawmakers. 

They don’t want public land sales language in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, period.

The House passed its version of the bill in late May, but that chamber will get it again when the Senate is done changing it. The Senate is drafting a parallel version and has yet to vote.

In the end, the two chambers must agree on identical language for the sprawling tax and spending package to go to President Donald Trump’s desk.

‘Forced To Vote No’

In their letter Thursday to Johnson, the five lawmakers referred to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as OB3.

“We support the OB3 passed by the House and generally accept changes to the bill that may be made by the Senate,” their letter says, then emphasizing in bold. “However, we cannot accept the sale of federal lands that Senator Lee seeks. If a provision to sell public lands is in the bill that reaches the House floor, we will be forced to vote no.” 

Considering the original House version squeaked through by a single vote, five Republicans changing their votes from yes to no would likely sink the bill, absent big shifts the other way.

Republicans hold a 220-212 edge in the House. There are three vacancies because of recent deaths.

The bill passed 215-214. Every House Democrat cast a vote — all were opposed — and two Republicans joined them. Two Republicans did not vote, and one Republican formally abstained by voting “present.”

Original, New Plans

Lee’s original plan called for the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to sell off 2 millionto 3 million acres for housing development.

That plan, which has become highly contentious across the board with Republicans and Democrats, was found to be out of compliance with the Byrd Rule on budget legislation that Republicans are bound by with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Lee said his new plan calls for about half the original amount of land to be sold, all of it from the BLM and none from the U.S. Forest Service. It was not clear Friday morning whether the Senate parliamentarian, who said no to the first plan, has seen Lee’s promised changed one second one.

Email messages left with a Lee spokesman, as well as a spokeswoman for U.S. Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming, were not immediately returned.

In any event, in the Thursday letter to Johnson, Zinke and the co-signers made clear they are counting on more than the parliamentarian’s nonbinding opinions to keep the language out. They want Johnson to make sure of things with Senate leadership.

“It is our hope that the Senate parliamentarian strips any language from the bill regarding public lands sales, but we hope we can count on you once again to hear our concerns and work with Senate leadership to remove the provision that will tank the entire Republican agenda," they wrote.

‘God Isn’t Creating More Land’

When House committees were building their version of the One Big Beautiful Act, language to sell public lands was approved by the House Natural Resources Committee but scrubbed further up the leadership chain.

That language took the form of a midnight amendment to the Natural Resources portion of the package. The amendment was attached by U.S. Reps. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, and Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, and would have pertained to about 450,000 acres confined to those two states.

Two weeks later, Zinke issued a May 21 statement taking credit for getting the Rules Committee to erase the provision. 

“This was my San Juan Hill,” he said at the time. “I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands. Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isn’t creating more land.”

In Wyoming, hundreds of people gathered on the steps of the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne to protest Lee’s public land sale plan, led by state Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie. 

“I’d just like to take a moment to thank Sen. Mike Lee for bringing us all here together,” she told the crowd. “I’m just kidding. Let’s boo that jackass.” 

Sean Barry can be reached at sean@cowboystatedaily.com.