Senate roundtable panelists warn against forced sale of western public lands in budget proposal

Senator Martin Heinrich, chairing a roundtable of senators and public-land advocates, warned that a newly resurfaced proposal to mandate sales of public lands would permanently remove access and protections on large tracts of western lands.

Heinrich said the proposal, originally contested by the Senate parliamentarian, aimed to force the sale of "2 to 3,000,000 acres" and later versions remain under review. "Once these lands go into private hands, we will not get them back," he said. "That's horseshit."

The panel included Hillary Tompkins, a former solicitor at the U.S. Department of the Interior; Land Tawney, former president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers; Jess Johnson, government affairs director for the Wyoming Wildlife Federation; Jocelyn Torres, chief conservation officer at the Conservation Lands Foundation; and Dr. Mike Tracy, a community health physician and volunteer with the Continental Divide Trail Coalition.

Why it matters: Panelists said the language under consideration is not a targeted, community-driven land transfer process but a broad mandate tied to budget…