Viewpoint: Daines and Sheehy must oppose public land sales

Corey Ellis

A current amendment to the “Big Beautiful Bill” is beyond ugly. It would REQUIRE the sale of millions of acres of public lands throughout the West.

Basically anything that is not a National Monument or a Wilderness Area would become eligible for sale. At best this would raise 10’s of billions of dollars, more likely just a few billion. This amounts to saving each taxpayer just a few dollars for a single year. And all we have to give up is a lifetime of access to some of the best places on earth.

The places we camp, hike, bike, ski, hunt and fish. As if trying to insult us, the same bill cuts royalties for the oil and gas industry on the same public lands. These royalties far outweigh the revenue of a potential land sale. And they are annual.

Daines and Sheehy are going to point out that there are no lands in Montana included, but I suspect that this is how their votes were bought. Our delegation can claim they defended Montana public lands while selling millions of acres elsewhere.

But it doesn’t matter if those lands are outside Montana, they belong to all of us. Most of us have or want to recreate, fish and hunt in places like New Mexico’s Gila, the Henry Mountains of Utah or the San Juans in Colorado.

Call today and tell our senators this is unacceptable. Daines office: 202-224-2651; Sheehy office: 202-224-2644.