Zinke says he’s a ‘no’ on Senate megabill amid public land sales push

Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke said Thursday he’ll vote against the Senate’s version of the GOP megabill over a provision that would mandate the sale of up to 1.2 million acres of public lands.

Zinke's internal disagreements on the public land sales measure poses yet another complication in negotiations over a bill on which House Republicans can only afford to lose three votes.

“I agree with my colleagues that the federal government has mismanaged federal lands for decades. But I don’t agree with their solution,” said Zinke, who was Interior Secretary during Trump’s first term, in a post on the social platform X.

“The solution is not to sell public lands,” he added. “I remain a no on the senate reconciliation bill.”

In a separate interview with CNN that Zinke also posted on social media Thursday, he pushed back on land sale supporters’ argument that the land can be used for affordable housing. 

“Affordable housing is tens of acres, not millions of acres,” he said. 

He’s not the only GOP lawmaker to come out against the provision. Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) issued a statement dissing the bill on Wednesday.

“I do support and encourage sale or exchange of parcels of federal land when there is a clear economic or social demand for such disposition, and when that disposition follows appropriate procedure and is generally supported by those affected,” he said in the statement.

“I do not support a mandated disposition of millions of acres of federal land, the amount of which was arbitrarily established, the primary goal not being to respond to demand, but instead being the removal of land from federal ownership,” he added. 

It’s not clear whether he’d also vote against the bill over the disagreements.

An original proposal — from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — would have required the sales of between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of land owned by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

After that proposal was rejected by the Senate parliamentarian, Lee drafted a new version that would require the sale of up to 1.2 million acres of BLM land. It’s not entirely clear if the parliamentarian will approve the new version.

Lee has said he wants to sell the acres in order to "expand housing, support local development and get Washington, D.C., out of the way of communities that are just trying to grow.”

The intraparty discord on the matter adds further complications to already difficult internal negotiations over Medicaid cuts, federal tax deductions in areas with high local taxes and the phaseout of incentives for low-carbon energy. 

Meanwhile, the White House insists it would like to see a deal reached by next Friday.