Last summer, Senate Republicans attempted to sell off millions of acres of federal public land as part of the budget reconciliation process. Now, a group of Western Democratic senators wants to send a clear message that this cannot happen again. 

“Public lands are owned by the American people and are managed to provide perpetual benefits that far outlast a 10-year budget period, a Senate career or even our lifetimes,” said Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet on a Thursday, April 30, press call. “In Colorado, they are part of our DNA, the foundation of our economy and treasured parts of our culture, geography and history … The idea of selling them is insane and something that I will never stop fighting.” 

Bennet introduced a new bill called the Public Lands Integrity Act this week alongside Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., to bar public land sales from being included in any future reconciliation processes. 

The Colorado senator said this was an appropriate venue for preventing public land sales, “because  it is this process that (Sen.) Mike Lee used to try to basically terrorize the Senate last year over this issue.” 

Lee, a Republican Senator from Utah, spearheaded the effort to mandate the sale of between 2 million and 3 million acres of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands in 11 Western states, purportedly for housing and “community needs” as part of the “One Big, Beautiful Act” last June. In Colorado, the sales could have impacted the 16 million acres managed by the Forest Service and the 8.3 million acres managed by the Bureau. 

Ultimately, it was opposition from congressional Republicans, Democrats and members of the public to the sale proposal — and the Senate parliamentarian ruling it improper for the budget reconciliation bill — that led the provision to be stripped from the final package. 

The new legislation introduced by Bennet would make public land sales a seventh exception to the Byrd Rule, which establishes guardrails to what senators can include in a reconciliation process. It is the Senate parliamentarian — a nonpartisan, appointed advisor who is often described as a referee — who makes determinations based on the Byrd Rule. 

Last year, Lee’s proposed public land sale was found in violation of the Byrd Rule’s requirement that all items in a reconciliation package must have a direct and substantive impact on federal spending or revenues.  

As Lee and other congressional Republicans continue to push for privatizing public lands, Bennet has defended the proposed legislation as necessary.

“Sen. Lee’s proposal was a radical idea, but he’s been clear ever since that he’s not giving up the fight to sell off our treasured public lands — and we aren’t done either,” Bennet said. “Public lands must be off the table to pay for short-term, partisan spending.”

Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, spoke in favor of the federal legislation on Thursday’s press call.

“More than $17 billion of our economy is driven by our outdoor recreation usage and the connection that so many people feel with nature,” McCluskie said. “More than 130,000 jobs rely on access to our public lands. And just as importantly, our public lands define who we are as Coloradans. It is really a testament to the spirit of the West when you can get out into the great outdoors, connect with nature and understand how really serene and beautiful these special places are.” 

For the second year in a row, Colorado’s legislature introduced and passed a joint resolution opposing “all efforts” that “directly or indirectly diminish the public’s voice, access and recourse in the management of national public lands,” including widespread land sales and “erosion of bedrock laws” such as the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. 

While it did have some dissenting votes — from 15 Republican representatives and eight Republican senators — legislators from both parties supported the resolution. 

Bill Fales, a Carbondale rancher who owns a cattle operation that straddles Garfield and Pitkin counties, spoke of the importance of public land access for producers, especially in Western Slope counties like Pitkin, where nearly 85% of the land is federally owned. 

“Every family ranch in the valley that I know of — well, I know almost everyone from Rifle clear to Aspen — every one of them relies on public land grazing. It’s the only land there is,” Fales said, adding that cattlemen were called on to support Sen. Lee’s federal land proposal because they could buy the land themselves. 

“That is just totally ludicrous, the idea that a small family ranch will outbid the insane number of billionaires and oil companies who also treasure this land,” Fales said. “It would end multiple use on these public lands and/or federal land grazing, and the important recreation economy.”

Bennet was optimistic about the act’s chances due in part to the widespread support of public lands. Several Western Slope county commissioners expressed support for the act in a Thursday news release.

 “Our public lands, which represent 85% of our county, nourish critical wildlife habitat for fish, bird, elk and bear populations, serve as the backbone of a thriving recreational economy, and inspire the love and awe we have for this place we call home,” said Jeffrey Woodruff, Pitkin County Commissioner. “We are stewards of this land. Our residents, international visitors, and the over 40 million Americans who depend upon the Colorado River, all trust that public land will be a vital resource, not just today, but for all of the generations to come.”

Public land sales are widely opposed in the West regardless of political affiliation, according to the 2026 Conservation in the West Poll — an annual survey of eight western states, including Colorado, on environmental issues. Around 80% of the Colorodans surveyed expressed opposition to public land sales for housing development and to private companies for oil, gas and mining development. Similar rates of opposition were reported in all the states surveyed. 

“There was a time when we were passing, every generation was passing, strong bipartisan public lands bills,” Bennet said. “That has been stopped in recent years by the Republicans, particularly by Sen. Lee and Sen. (Ted) Cruz, (R-Texas), and I hope someday we actually get back into the business of passing bipartisan bills, so we can protect more land, so we can pass bills like the GORP Act.” 

Bennet introduced the GORP Act, or Gunnison Outdoor Resource Protection, last year to add protections to more than 700,000 acres of public land in and around Gunnison County. 

“In the meantime, what we’ve got to do is make sure that they know that we’re gonna fight every single effort to sell off the public lands of the United States, and that’s what the Public Lands Integrity Act is meant to do,” he added.