Environmental groups are up in arms about a new Republican initiative in Congress to study selling public land to be used for affordable housing and using the money from those sales to help pay for a massive bill to enact President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.
U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis support a similar effort to possibly sell some lands around Western cities or national parks to build more housing. They already co-sponsored a bill in 2024 called the HOUSES Act to further this goal.
As it was introduced in the last Congress, the bill gives local and state governments the power to nominate federal public lands for purchase at below market rates.
Under the bill, private development proposals would supersede “any other potential use” of the lands, but forbids the sale of national park land or other "federally protected lands” and any sale from the federal government to a more local government that would require the approval of that state's governor.
“Too many Wyoming families are affected by housing scarcity, and I believe this legislation would deliver meaningful benefits,” Lummis told Cowboy State Daily. “I look forward to examining the Trump administration's proposal on this important issue."
Barrasso said providing more housing opportunities to national parks and Forest Service employees should be a top priority. Gateway communities like Cody and Jackson, towns with particular housing shortage issues, would be specifically targeted.
“We are blessed to host millions of visitors from across the country and around the world each year,” Barrasso said. “To continue to do so, employees of the National Park Service and the Forest Service need access to affordable and adequate housing on or near the lands where they work.
“Our bipartisan bill will help address the growing demand for housing by making it possible for these agencies to partner with the private sector to find solutions to the housing shortage.”
The American Enterprise Institute claims that selling off national public lands for housing development could generate $100 billion in federal revenue.
Not Like This
Although state Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, has been a longtime supporter of bringing more affordable housing to Wyoming, she said the proposal to use public land to help achieve this goal is reprehensible.
“People don’t want this in Wyoming,” she said. “They should be shamed and the people of Wyoming will be standing up in staunch opposition to it. This is the opposite of the Wyoming dream.”
Provenza believes if solving affordable housing problems is the real issue, there is plenty of private land already available that could be used for this purpose.
Barrasso and Lummis’ open support for this proposal is significant when considering the 18 million acres of federal public lands in Wyoming and the strong hunting and recreation culture in the Cowboy State.
Even members of Montana’s Republican delegation wouldn’t go as far as them, with Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke both telling Politico they wouldn’t support it.
Provenza said this is simply a result of Barrasso and Lummis facing no real competition in their next elections.
“They’re people that don’t have to work for their votes,” she said. “When you don’t have to work for your votes, they can just hail their leader.”
She and many others also argue that the sale of affordable housing however is really being used as a ploy to help fund a federal budget depleted from giving tax breaks to the wealthy and possibly selling off public lands to them as well.
“Selling off the country’s national public lands to fund a tax break for the wealthy is an assault on everyone who values their access to the outdoors–regardless of political affiliation,” Chris Hill, CEO of the Conservation Lands Foundation, said in a statement. “It ignores overwhelming public support for access to their public lands and it’s a direct hit on rural economies that rely on outdoor recreation.”
Sharing this perspective, Colorado Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper and New Mexico Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich brought a budget amendment last week opposing the inclusion of public lands sales to reduce the federal deficit. The amendment failed on a 51-48 vote with Barrasso and Lummis voting against it.
"This vote was a bad faith effort by Democrats to obstruct President Trump's agenda,” said Joe Jackson, a spokesperson for Lummis. “Senator Lummis isn't going to play that game, so she voted no."
Similarly, Barrasso said he voted against the amendment because it would have dictated how revenue from federal land sales can or cannot be used. Transferring or selling specific tracts of federal land for affordable housing is not a novel proposal and has been pursued in the recent past.
Bigger Issue
The issue isn’t limited to Congress, either.
Last month, the Trump administration announced a new joint initiative between the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to use federal lands for affordable housing.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner said their agencies would work together to inventory “underutilized federal lands” in places with the most significant housing needs and work to initiate transfers or lease the lands to states, local governments, public housing authorities, or nonprofit entities.
Last year, the state of Utah tried to force the United States to dispose of more than 18 million acres of public lands in the state, pushing a legal theory that would have ultimately affected hundreds of millions of acres across the country. This effort was openly supported by Rep. Harriet Hageman and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Hageman did not respond to Cowboy State Daily’s request for comment on this story.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
