Grist

06/18/2025

The proposal, laid out in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s draft portion of the bill, would force the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, over the next five years, to identify and sell between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres across 11 Western states for “the development of housing or to address associated infrastructure to support local housing needs.” In total, 250 million acres of land would be eligible for those mandatory sales — including campgrounds and other recreation sites, roadless areas, and important wildlife habitat. The bill excludes protected areas like national parks and designated national recreation areas.

In a statement, Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, called the proposal “a complete betrayal of future generations.” Conservation groups have likewise pilloried it as “a shameless ploy to sell off pristine public lands for trophy homes and gated communities” in order to pay for “tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.”

From his first day in office, Trump has promised to turn over federal lands to private interests — including logging interests and oil and gas companies, as well as housing developers. In March, the Trump administration launched a task force to identify “underutilized federal lands suitable for residential development,” an ostensible effort to address the U.S.’s affordable housing crisis.

“The housing argument is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” said Jordan Schreiber, government relations director for the nonprofit The Wilderness Society. “It doesn’t even pass the laugh test.”