{"id":53060,"date":"2025-05-20T13:50:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T17:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanhiking.org\/?p=53060"},"modified":"2025-06-10T14:14:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T18:14:46","slug":"american-hiking-joins-71-organizations-in-opposition-to-public-lands-sell-off-in-reconciliation-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanhiking.org\/american-hiking-joins-71-organizations-in-opposition-to-public-lands-sell-off-in-reconciliation-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"American Hiking Joins 71 Organizations in Opposition to Public Lands Sell Off in House Reconciliation Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

PDF Version of Letter<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\tThe Honorable Mike Johnson
\nSpeaker
\nHouse of Representatives
\n\nThe Honorable Bruce Westerman
\nChairman
\nHouse Committee on Natural Resources\n\tThe Honorable Hakeem Jeffries
\nMinority Leader
\nHouse of Representatives\nThe Honorable Jared Huffman
\nRanking Member
\nHouse Committee on Natural Resources\n\tRE: Amodei Amendment 013 to H.Con.Res.14 – Public Lands Sell Off Amendment<\/strong>
\n\nDear Members of the House of Representatives,
\n\nOn behalf of our members, we, the undersigned organizations, ask you to strip the Amodei Amendment 013 from the House Interior Reconciliation Bill.
\n\nThe House Natural Resources Committee has now added selling off public lands that belong to all Americans to what is already a sprawling attempt to fast-track resource development for a variety of industries including oil, gas, coal, hardrock mining, and timber.
\n\n

At the 11th hour, and at the end of a day-long hearing, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV-2) and Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT-2) introduced an amendment, without including the maps the amendment references, that would result in the sell-off of over 11,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managed public land in Utah and 500,000 acres in Nevada. This amendment was introduced during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on May 6th, 2025, without an opportunity for review by other members of Congress or the public. The Committee voted to allow this amendment and ultimately in favor of the entire bill. <\/p>\nContrary to statements by Rep. Maloy, the language of the amendment includes no requirements for public use and no limitations on how the lands can be used once sold – meaning they may be developed for golf courses, luxury resorts, strip malls, private vacation homes, or simply flipped for sale again. Nothing is off the table. The public had no opportunity to participate in the process of identifying these parcels, let alone time to understand the long-term effect of selling off these public lands. Public lands should remain in public hands.
\n\n

Parcels listed for sale in the amendment are within the following areas:<\/p>\n