Public Land Sales Return in Scaled-Back Form in Trump Tax Bill

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Bloomberg

June 28, 2025 at 8:23 AM EDT


A new version of a plan to sell vast tracts of public lands to help pay for President Donald Trump’s massive package of tax cuts has been added back into the Senate’s latest version of the package.

The plan, which would mandate the sale of as much 1.2 million acres of Interior Department land for housing or “community development” across 11 western states, represents a blow to conservationists staunchly opposed to the measures.

It could also complicate the path forward for the $4.2 trillion tax and spending package. The plan has been opposed by Western Republicans, who said earlier they have the votes to strike the measure from the bill. “I don’t support selling public lands,” Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, said in an interview earlier this week. “I think it’s shortsighted.”

Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican leading the land sales effort — which dovetails with a Trump administration plan to use federal land to address a housing crisis — has said the step is needed to address a nationwide shortage of millions of affordable homes.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-28/public-land-sales-return-in-scaled-back-form-in-trump-tax-bill?srnd=homepage-americas

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Those lands are almost COMPLETELY undeveloped. The amount of money needed to bring in electric, water (whether as wells and septic tank or through a water/sewer distribution system), and other utilities like telephone/cell/internet service, let alone roads/bridges for access, will definitely NOT make homes built there "affordable" (unless the land is used for RV or trailer parks with electric hookups and honeypot service ).