The New Mexico Wildlife Federation calls on everyone to speak out against a proposal pending in Congress to dispose of federal lands in the West. A critical vote on the issue could happen sometime before dawn Wednesday.
The consolidated tax and budget bill that’s moving through Congress – President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” – contains language calling for the sale or trade of nearly 500,000 acres of federal land in Nevada and Utah.
New Mexico’s congressional delegation, all Democrats, opposes the land-disposal measure. But given the Republican majority in both houses of Congress, the vote promises to be tight with only a few Republicans on record so far as opposing the land disposal.
Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., is co-chairing the bipartisan Public Lands Caucus in the House opposing the land disposal effort. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., the other co-chairman, served as secretary of interior during Trump’s first term.
Vasquez, a former staffer at the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, is a hunter, angler and a strong advocate of protecting federal lands. He and others in Congress have said they view the pending proposal to dispose of federal lands in Nevada and Utah as only the beginning of what promises to be a full-scale push to sell off federal lands around the West, including in New Mexico, if the effort isn’t defeated now.
“Amidst the partisan fights that are happening in Washington, public lands is a place where we can still work across the aisle, and where we saw an opportunity to bring some of our colleagues on board for the protection and conservation of our federal lands, and in particular, to stop the sale and transfer of federal lands,” Vasquez said.
Zinke on Monday told POLITICO’s E&E News that he is seeking to insert language into the tax cut, energy and national security bill before it reaches the House Rules Committee early Wednesday morning.
Zinke said he’s hoping to include his changes in what’s known as a “manager’s amendment,” a hodgepodge of final policy tweaks to the bill, POLITICO’s E&E reported. The news outlet reported it’s still unclear if Zinke’s measure will be incorporated as Republicans race to appease various corners of their caucus ahead of the vote on the bill.
Meanwhile, Nevada Democrats are also scrambling to oppose the proposal to sell off federal lands in their state.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., told KSNV-TV in Las Vegas this week that she’s introduced an amendment to remove the controversial sale of Southern Nevada public lands from the budget reconciliation bill.
Titus’ office told KSNV-TV that the congresswoman added an amendment Sunday night to rescind the provision introduced by U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., to sell 65,000 acres of public land in the state.
“This Republican budget includes a massive land grab in Southern Nevada to pay for tax breaks for the rich,” Titus said in a statement. “There are no provisions for setting aside lands for conservation or preserving critical ecosystems.”
Titus’ amendment will be considered during a House Rules Committee hearing on the reconciliation bill early Wednesday morning, KSNV-TV reported.
The New Mexico Wildlife Federation strongly opposes any sale of federal lands to try to balance the federal budget, NMWF Executive Director Jesse Deubel said.
“The New Mexico Wildlife Federation was founded over a century ago by Aldo Leopold,” Deubel said. “Leopold pushed for the designation of the Gila Wilderness, the first wilderness in the country.”
Leopold saw firsthand the disappearance and settling of the last remaining wild areas of the American West. He warned that once they fell into private hands and were developed, they would never be available to the public again.
“Failure is not an option when it comes to preserving our federal lands for future generations,” Deubel said. “Our public lands represent a priceless legacy handed down to us by the visionary conservationists of the past. We owe it to future generations to come not to allow our national inheritance to slip away.”
Deubel encouraged all hunters, anglers and others who care about public lands to contact their friends and relatives in other states and ask them to contact their congressional representatives to oppose disposal of public lands.
“People come to New Mexico to hunt and fish from Texas, Oklahoma and lots of other states precisely because of our public lands,” Deubel said. “Our congressional delegation here in New Mexico understands the issue. But the senators and representatives in other states need to hear from their constituents that selling off public lands in the West is a terrible idea.”