Nevada senator accelerates criticism of Republican federal lands proposal

As Republican lawmakers continue to press ahead with a proposal to sell wide swaths of federal land, one official in a state that would be impacted is ramping up her opposition to plans from both the Trump administration and her congressional colleagues.

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada on Wednesday lambasted Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during a hearing over the proposal. Later in the day, she blasted Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) for introducing a bill that would “use public land sales to pay for Senate Republicans’ billionaire tax cut bill,” she said.

As cabinet members made their way to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to talk with lawmakers about their congressional justifications for the president’s 2026 budget proposal, Burgum appeared before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. During the hearing, Cortez Masto discussed her support for the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA), passed in 1998.

That bill “allows the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell public land within a specific boundary around Las Vegas, Nevada,” with “the revenue derived from land sales [being] split between the State of Nevada General Education Fund (5%), the Southern Nevada Water Authority (10%), and a special account available to the Secretary of the Interior” according to the BLM.

Cortez Masto said that Burgum has discussed the benefits of such a model in the past, but accused him of actively trying to not put them into practice.

“In fact, on the House side — and I’m assuming they worked with the administration — their reconciliation package included federal land sales […] that weren’t even near areas where you could actually do affordable housing.”

She said that the land being looked at is “in the middle of the desert” and does not contain enough infrastructure to be attractive to homebuilders. She also asked Lee’s proposal.

“And now I’m hearing there is a proposal going to be put back into reconciliation [by Lee] to allow the federal government to sell up to 2 million acres of federal land. Is that correct?” she asked. Burgum confirmed that the proposal was under consideration.

According to Cortez Masto’s office, the language of Lee’s bill would direct the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service “to sell a certain percentage of federal lands in Nevada and other Western states for fair market value, while ignoring the [SNPLMA] and the Nevada tradition of sending federal land revenues back to the state to fund drought mitigation, public education, and conservation projects.”

“Sen. Lee’s bill would instead send the revenue from future lands sales in Nevada to the general Treasury,” she added.

Lee posted a video to announce the bill on Wednesday. He contended that politicians in Washington, D.C., were stalling progress with these lands and that the measure would allow for the development of more housing and businesses.

“We’re opening underused federal land to expand housing, support local development and get Washington, D.C., out of the way of communities that are just trying to grow,” he said in the video. “Washington has proven, time and again, it can’t manage this land. This bill puts it in better hands.”