Senate Parliamentarian Rules Public Land Sales Cannot be Part of Budget Bill

By Micah Drew, Daily Montanan

Koocanusa Reservoir north of the Libby Dam. (Image courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

The U.S. Senate parliamentarian ruled late Monday that a provision by Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, to mandate the sale of more than 2 million acres of federal public land cannot be part of the Big Beautiful Bill.

Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough — the official nonpartisan advisor to the Senate who interprets the body’s rules — ruled that several provisions in the major spending bill violate the Byrd Rule, which constrains what measures can be part of reconciliation bills and pass with a simple majority. Typically, votes in the U.S. Senate must overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. According to the Economic Policy Innovation Center, the Byrd Rule requires reconciliation bills to be focused on fiscal issues.

A press release by Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resource Committee, said that the ruling indicated seven provisions that are subject to the Byrd Rule, including requiring the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to sell off swaths of public land in 11 states. Montana is exempt from the provision.

The other provisions ruled against by MacDonough include sections about energy leasing, fees, royalties and exports, as well as one that would nullify environmental reviews for offshore oil and gas projects.

On social media, Lee, who chairs the Natural Resource Committee, indicated he would continue to push for selling some public land to help address housing issues in the country. He did announce his intention to make some changes to his provision including removing all Forest Service land from consideration and reducing eligible BLM land to only land within five miles of a population center.

Montana’s federal delegation has come out strongly against the sale of any public lands, and Montana is the only Western state that was exempt from Lee’s proposal.

Montana Representative Ryan Zinke was successful in removing a public lands sale provision from the spending bill before it passed the House, and subsequently founded a Public Lands Caucus, which Montana Representative Troy Downing joined.

Senator Steve Daines also issued a strong rebuke against selling federal land, with a spokesperson telling the Daily Montanan that Daines “always has and always will be against the sale of public lands.”

A spokesperson for Daines did not respond to a request for comment about the parliamentarian’s ruling on the public land sale proposal.