Nevada senator accuses Republicans of ‘land grab’ with late federal amendment

Following the revelation this week that Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives added an amendment to a bill that would authorize the sale of thousands of acres of federal land in Nevada and Utah, a Democratic senator has called foul on the nature of the effort.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) lambasted the amendment introduced by Reps. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) and Celeste Maloy (R-Utah), who represent states with significant federal land holdings. The markup of the bill also seeks to boost energy production on federal lands, including through oil drilling and mining.

In a statement from her office this week, Cortez Masto called out Amodei by saying he “snuck one of the single biggest sell-offs of Nevada public lands in history into their reconciliation bill.”

‘Insane plan’

The senator vowed to vigorously fight the proposal.

“In the dead of night, [Rep. Amodei] pushed House Republicans to move forward with an insane plan that cuts funding from water conservation and public schools across Nevada,” she said. “This is a land grab to fund Republicans ‘billionaire giveaway’ tax bill, and I’ll fight it with everything I have.”

For his part, Amodei said during the markup session that Nevada’s population is too reliant on Congress to make decisions about the state’s federal land when swifter action is needed to address housing shortages there.

But Cortez Masto contends that Amodei made the move “without consulting any of the Nevada delegation” and “forced the inclusion of language in the Republicans’ upcoming billionaire-tax cut bill that would sell up to 200,000 acres of public land in Clark County.”

She added that the bill ignores the consultation provisions of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA), and that the amendment “takes money away from conservation, wildfire prevention, and public schools across Nevada, as well as from the Southern Nevada Water Authority.”

The move will serve to “shortchange billions of dollars in future revenues from almost every county in Nevada, and the state as a whole,” she said.

Prior federal land-use actions

Cortez Masto has been a key figure in the ongoing debate about making more use of the state’s federal land.

In 2023, she helped broker a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Interior. The agreement sought to establish a framework for an arrangement to sell federal lands to the state at a rate of $100 an acre, far below its market value.

The land would be used for “the construction of critically needed affordable housing projects in Southern Nevada,” according to an announcement from HUD at the time.

But that effort took place during the Biden administration. With Democrats now locked out of majorities in the legislative branch and a Republican also controlling the White House, congressional leaders have opted to move ahead on key parts of their agenda despite opposition from the other side of the aisle.

A person familiar with Cortez Masto’s work on this issue told HousingWire that she has sought to bring multiple stakeholders in Clark County, Nevada, to the table in an effort to give ownership to the state instead of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The process established in 2023 could take years to complete, but the memorandum remains valid.

State-level moves

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) has also weighed in on this issue multiple times.

In 2024, he urged then-President Biden to decrease federal spending and take action on affordable housing issues. In a letter sent to Biden last spring, Lombardo asked the president to “make more federal lands available for housing development, so that Nevada can increase its inventory and address shortages to ultimately drive down costs.”

In February 2025, Lombardo also submitted a letter to state legislative leaders, urging the adoption of a resolution that would push for more control of the state’s federal land to build homes.

But the Democratic majority cast aspersions on the letter’s sincerity, telling HousingWire that prior veto actions by the governor undermined the intent of the letter.

“If Gov. Lombardo is serious about tackling housing affordability and not just writing letters, he should work with legislative Democrats and Republicans to provide immediate action for Nevada families,” Sandra Jauregui, the Democratic Assembly Majority Floor Leader, said in February.