Santa Fe, New Mexico (AP) The governors of Western states responded differently on Monday to a Republican-sponsored bill in Congress that would require the sale of federal public lands.
Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, has proposed a budget that would require the sale of almost 2 million acres of federal lands to states or other organizations. It was just included to a draft clause in the Republican Party’s massive tax cut plan.
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New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the strategy is problematic in New Mexico because to the intimate bond individuals have with those public lands during a summit of Western state governors on Monday.
Former congressman and second-term Democratic governor Lujan Grisham stated, “I’m open to the idea.” Not here, though.
“Our public lands, we have a very strong relationship with the openness, and they belong to all of us,” Lujan Grisham said on Monday when unveiling the Western Governors Association’s written proposals on affordable housing alternatives. And it will be difficult for me as a governor, at the very least, to sell that to the private sector without a procedure and without prioritizing New Mexicans.
Leaders from a number of government agencies are expected to attend the association’s summit on Monday and Tuesday, including Secretary of the Interior Department Doug Burgum. Plans to give over public land to developers have prompted conservation organizations to promise to hold public demonstrations.
Mark Gordon, the governor of Wyoming, expressed cautious support for proposals to use federal land for development.
“We can actually allow for some responsible growth in areas with communities that are currently landlocked on a piece-by-piece basis where states have the opportunity to craft policies that make sense,” he said at a press conference held outside the Georgia O. Keeffe Museum in downtown Santa Fe. There might be something worthwhile there.
According to Lee’s proposal, federal land sales would not include national parks, national monuments, or wilderness; instead, they would focus on isolated tracts that may be utilized for infrastructure or housing.
The transaction would include land in 11 Western states, ranging from Alaska to New Mexico. Montana’s lawmakers opposed, and the state was removed from the proposal.
The government owns the great majority of the land in some states, like Utah and Nevada, which shields it from possible exploitation but impedes development.
