In a battle over taxes and access to Wyoming’s wide open spaces, U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis voted against a measure that would have blocked the government from selling public land to help fund the federal budget.
Wyoming’s two Republican senators voted Friday evening against a budget amendment brought by Colorado’s Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper that would “prevent[…] the use of proceeds from public land sales to reduce the Federal deficit.”
Democrats and conservationists have decried the GOP’s openness to sell federal land to fund the budget, saying such a divestiture of beloved public assets would be used to offset tax cuts for the wealthy.
“Republicans are saying that they need to sell off your public lands to solve the housing crisis,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat who co-sponsored the failed budget amendment. “But we already have laws that allow for targeted land transfers for things like housing,” he said in an Instagram post.
“I think it’s a signal to Wyoming [that Barrasso and Lummis] are OK with selling off public lands for the benefit of America’s wealthiest people.”
Jordan Schreiber
Instead, Heinrich said, selling public land under budget reconciliation “means their goal isn’t housing — it’s selling your public land to pay for a tax cut for people like Elon Musk.”
Wyoming public land users should take note of their senators’ votes, said Jordan Schreiber, an Equality State native and director of government relations with The Wilderness Society.
“I think it’s a signal to Wyoming [that Barrasso and Lummis] are OK with selling off public lands for the benefit of America’s wealthiest people,” she said.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council also criticized the Wyoming senators, saying their “disappointing” votes “leave our public lands vulnerable in this budget reconciliation process.”
Their vote “completely ignores the vast benefits that our public lands in Wyoming provide for rural communities and our quality of life,” Alec Underwood, Outdoor Council program director, said in a statement.
Neither Lummis nor Barrasso responded to a request for comment Monday.
False hype?
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah called the anti-sales budget amendment “false hype” that would only restrict use of land-sales funds. “It doesn’t stop land sales,” he said, promoting the effort.
Opposition to federal land sales “restricts our ability to do anything, everything, develop, plan, build houses, which we desperately need, even to fund our schools, our search-and-rescue, our police services,” Lee said. “This is disgraceful,” he said of the amendment just before it failed Friday.
While Republicans say sales will resolve affordable housing problems in expensive real estate markets near national parks and other desirable locations, Democrats and conservationists see the move as more insidious.
That’s because Republicans have put federal land sales on a menu of items Congress could use to pay for the budget, according to a document obtained by Politico. The menu catalogues as a “savings” any action that “increases sale of federal land.” The value of such sales to the budget is “to be determined,” the document states.
“This vote [on the amendment] is a wake-up call and part of a concerning, larger campaign being waged against public lands at every level of government,” said Wilderness Society President Tracy Stone-Manning, who served as director of the Bureau of Land Management under President Joe Biden. In a statement, she ticked off other anti-conservation actions by the Trump administration, “including mass firings of land managers and executive orders that demand more drilling and mining.
“It appears,” she said, “their ultimate goal is to destroy our conservation heritage, totally contrary to what Americans actually value.”
That conservation heritage underpins Wyoming’s outdoor recreation and tourism economies, both of which are centered around the Yellowstone ecosystem. Tourism is Wyoming’s second-largest industry and generated $4.8 billion in 2023, employing 33,000 people, according to a University of Wyoming study.
Wyoming residents and lawmakers have supported the industry and public lands in a number of ways. This year, the Legislature defeated a resolution calling on Congress to begin the process of turning over all federal land in the state, except Yellowstone, to Wyoming.
In 2024, Wyoming lawmakers also authorized the sale of the square-mile Kelly Parcel of state school trust land in Grand Teton National Park for conservation, not for development or affordable housing.
The state itself, through Gov. Mark Gordon and Attorney General Bridget Hill, also refused to back the grossest claims in a fast-track Utah petition to the Supreme Court that sought to give the Beehive State 18.5 million of federal land. Wyoming’s official filing tepidly supported Utah but stopped short of demanding federal property.
The Supreme Court rejected Utah’s effort, dismissing strong Utah backers like Wyoming’s lone U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman and Wyoming Freedom Caucus members. Critics of Western states’ efforts to take over ownership of federal property say the states could never afford to manage the land and would end up selling it to private interests, destroying the public access to public lands enjoyed by all Americans.
Colorado’s Sen. Hickenlooper, who sponsored the anti-sale budget amendment that died Friday, said his measure would have “prevent[ed] this reckless fire sale of our campgrounds, our forests, our national treasures.”
I can hardly bear to read this sad story because the delegations stance is anathema to all I have ever known. My Dad and his brothers purchased from their father permits to start Skinner Brothers, a wilderness, survival school for boys, in the mid 1950’s, and a pack trips and big game outfitting business shortly thereafter. They operated in the Bridger Wilderness on National Forest. They explored, with many people, the magic and formidability of Western Wyoming and taught them conservation, and dare I say environmental ethics?
My Dad, a Sublette County Commissioner, would be rolling in his grave right now. He opposed California’s grab for Wyoming’s water, and insisted on a ban on fireworks because he had witnessed the destruction of wildfires, and put out his fair share of them when they started. Notably, when Sen. Barrasso asked him if Monte B. Skinner would support him for a federal election, he said, “No,” while looking him straight in the eyes. Why? He told him that he wanted to be a U.S. Senator, but he did not understand nor represent Wyoming.
Unless it has changed,, tourism is the second source of income for the state-preceded by energy minerals, and followed by agriculture. Millions travel to Wyoming to explore Federal lands
Anyone who has done just a bit of research would understand the proposed land for sale is minuscule and will be used for affordable housing for the people that actually work in the elitist run towns, like Jackson, which is governed by Democrats. It would be political suicide for Barrasso and Lummis to allow the sale of vast Wyoming public lands, and they know it. This article and it’s author are doing nothing more than gaslighting a non-issue.
If they want to find a new source of funding they can repeal the 1872 Mining Act and use the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 to manage all federal minerals and collect reasonable royalties on all minerals. Currently many rich minerals are blocked from development by mining claim holders keeping others from developing them. This allows a few corporations, many foreign owned, to limit supplies of precious minerals like rare earth minerals, metals like gold, silver, uranium and palladium. They don’t pay any royalties on what they extract and they don’t even have report the minerals they remove incidental to the mineral the claim was filed on.
Say goodbye forever to the beautiful lands enjoyed by everyone. It’s so sad I could cry. Nothing like foreign investors owning WY while hard working people are denied access to what was THEIR land. Might not agree with everything the Federal gov does but it’s a h.ll of lot better than private owners taking control.
As usual Barrasso and Lummis have sold Wyoming out so the rich can keep getting richer at the expense of our public lands and our lifestyles by voting against the bill that would protect our public lands from being sold. Call or email Barrasso and Lummis and voice your concerns
I think its clearly understood that the 7,000 plus visas now being offered or soon to be offered to the Afrikaans who Musk supports will be offered the chance to homestead on public lands and of course only a fool would think Barrassho, lumie Haggaman won’t fill their own pockets and agendas. Very few politicians are in for the” good of the people” it only for their egos and self interest but its also the public’s fault because we trust them to do the job for the people and we seem to always lose that trust once greed offers them a deal. Term limits needs to be on the ballots and bribes reported
At the end of the day, Wyoming is home to a few real treasures. Chief among them is public lands (USDA FS, BLM, NPS and state/other lands). They, and the wildlife (plus recreational opportunities and other resources/uses) they support, define Wyoming. They ARE Wyoming. Once gone, you’ll never get them or the resources and opportunities back. Maybe, for the first time in a long time, consider voting for your own best interests Equality State? Barrasso, Lummis and Hagemen do not care about you. They’ve demonstrated clearly they are in thrall to their oligarch overlords.
Maybe we should get rid of 80% of politicians and worthless federal employees to help balance the budget
Hey Jimmy, didn’t you spend several decades working for the state of Wyoming? I guess that makes you a state employee. Not much different than a federal employee. How would you like it if someone called you a worthless state employee? No one deserves to be called a worthless employee just because of who employs them, right?
All well said! But too little too late. Sycophants are in it for the long haul and will destroy whatever the King tells them to destroy. I’ve lost hope that the America I grew up in will ever be the same. And all thanks the people driving by the protesters at “Hands Off” and yelling “You’re all assholes”. I’d love to understand what they are getting out of this?? But I do believe they’ll get what they deserve. Maybe we’ll all be more thoughtful next election, for whatever good that does.
All three of Wyoming’s federal elected officials support corporations and oligarchs above the interests of the people that elected them. Is there anyone reading Wyofile that has a rational argument for how selling off public land benefits Wyomingites?
In the photo of them, I think Sens. Barrasso and Lummis with their happy faces were tone-deaf to the horror unfolding in Washington and across Wyoming and the rest of our country. Federal lands are all US constituents’ lands. They should not be for sale to raise money for Trump’s whims. I am completely disgusted with their most recent actions.
This is shameful that our own representatives would agree and support the sale of the public lands that are one of the greatest assets Wyoming has. We need to vote these people out of office and replace them with people who actually listen to what Wyoming citizens want and not just benefit themselves. They’re a disgrace to our state.
Vote these boot- licking, corrupt people out, Wyoming! 97% of the people who voted in Wyoming, voted in a corrupt, morally bankrupt person and these legislators are goose-stepping us into ruin. Our public lands are sacred, our wildlife is iconic and our economy so fragile. Vote them pall out!
I would be hard pressed to find anyone below the level of multi-millionaire in Wyoming or the whole western U.S. for that matter that thinks selling off public land is a good idea.
Do you think Barrasso and Lummis hunt or fish or camp or do anything on public land? No, they don’t and they don’t care about us doing it going forward. SPEAK UP or we are going to get screwed.
barrasso doesnt have the cahones to stand up to the orange guy.
I agree!
Check out the following article if you want to delve further into the Trump regime’s objectives behind this proposed sell-out of our national heritage. The proceeds would likely be used to buy cryptocurrencies, including Trump’s own meme coin.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/trump-quietly-plans-to-liquidate-public-lands-to-finance-his-sovereign-wealth-fund/
The divestment of public lands has been a plank of the Republican platform for many years.
So do our benighted State electeds really think that the Federal Government is going to turn public land ownership over to the states, when what it actually plans is to sell the high dollar properties off to fellow oligarchs? The Kelly Parcel might be first in line for liquidation.
Thank you thank you for this post.
These votes were shameful. This provision was snuck into Budget Reconciliation with no meaningful discussion or debate. Wyoming citizens were not consulted by their Senators about this important issue. The vast majority of Wyomingites do NOT want to sell off or dispose of Federal Public Lands. Numerous public opinion polls show this overwhelming support of continued public access to Federal Public Lands. Lummis and Barrasso are not representing their constituents and this vote demonstrates their betrayal of the people of Wyoming. The largest employment sector in Wyoming is Tourism and Recreation and it is the 2nd Largest economic contributor. Selling public lands will devastate this part of Wyoming’s economy. Add this in with Trump’s tariffs and it’s a bad day for Wyoming small businesses and outdoor loving citizens. Truly shameful!
Traitors to the State of Wyoming.
They sold their souls to the “Orange Baboon” so for sure they won’t have a problem selling public lands. Poor excuse for being so called representatives of the people!
Exactly who in Wyoming supports selling public lands? It would be very interesting to see a well done survey of Wyoming residents about that. No doubt some livestock operators would like the idea, as there is always unhappiness about the diminutive cost to graze BLM or USFS lands. But when billionaires like the following chart are bidding, ranchers will be penny ante buyers.
Name Estimated wealth (USD)
Al-Waleed bin Talal $2 billion
Al Juffali family $8 billion
Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi[3] $9 billion
Almana family Construction
Saleh Kamel $2 billion Diversified
Arqam Tariq $1 billion Diversified
Khalid bin Mahfouz & family[4] $20 billion Diversified
Public land users will likely be excluded from accessing for recreation. Think hard about the potential down sides of this looney tune idea.
Not only are Lummis and Barrasso (plus Hageman) working instep with Trump to absolutely ruin the economy and destroy lives, these fiends are also trying to steal your public lands. We’ve elected pure evil and not just in the white house but our own state reps. What’s in it for them? What has Trump promised the disgusting and thieving 3? They’ve proven to be nothing but cowards by not facing the public in the town halls but do they think there’ll be a safe hiding place when all is lost and the public revolts?
Maybe start a movement to flood the ballot boxes with a write in candidate who supports public land. Maybe enough votes to tip an election.
Good idea.
Right on. Vote early and often! It’s the only way we can win!
you can only vote once sir. are you promoting election fraud?
Whaddya expect from the trash you elect, from the federal to the local levels? I came here for the federal public lands which the wealthy idiots now want to plunder.
Replace the COWARDS in congress.
Do we cut our forests for lumber and mine our rangelands for coal and oil, or do we sell those lands to wealthy buyers? You can’t have both, Sens. Barrasso and Lummis. This state has had only one party in power for too long. If you want to keep Wyoming values in place, start voting them out.
‘Instead, Heinrich said, selling public land under budget reconciliation “means their goal isn’t housing — it’s selling your public land to pay for a tax cut for people like Elon Musk.”’ – yep! And will the MAGA blockheads ever understand that the DOGE department and staffing cuts are not part of a plan to pay off the deficit, it is to hand over a $4T tax cut to the uber rich?
If Trump is willing to take Gaza to build his next favorite resort, what will stop him from selling tracts of federal forest along the east boundary of Grand Teton National Park? Imagine the hotels towering above the National Elk Refuge and Kelly or offering rooms along Spread Creek that have good views of the peaks.
He’ll have no worries about selling those lands to, who else? Donald Trump.
Not going to happen Dan.
What may happen is when collateral on our debt is taken after the bankruptcy by our creditors, and they build the hotels.
The Chinese love the GYE, they seem to think it’s a cross between a zoo and Disneyland. I have watched them for decades when in the parks myself.
Republicans have always hated public lands, so this isn’t new. Maybe the “common clay of the new west” will wake up the that fact.
The mob boss approach to receiving gratuities from scoundrels looking to enrich themselves at the expense of the public, is to put conditions on deals that can only be made after a wink, blink, or nod. TFG was well trained by Roy Cohn.
Well there’s the Republican answer to the recent corner crossing decision, just go ahead and let the billionaires buy that public ground they were trying to block you out of. Wake up Wyoming voters! Our representatives have sold us out, and they need to go!
Selling our public lands for short-term housing supply or financial gain is a bad idea. No one in the future is going to say, “I’m glad they temporarily improved their housing situation at the expense of our public land heritage.”
“Neither Lummis nor Barrasso responded to a request for comment Monday.”
No surprise here, they just need time to come up with a computer-generated response glorifying the orange dictator.
Selling public lands in Wyoming is just ridiculous. Buyers beware. Our Congressional delegation should know better.
Selling federal lands will not benefit the little guys that want to ranch, but it will certainly help the rich obtain trophy ranches or the land developers build trophy homes and destinations.
Of course these two knuckleheads are once again not representing us but cow towing to the elite but you’re trying to tell me that the sniveling little coward Barrasso pulled his nose out of Trump’s ass long enough to cast a senate vote? That, I find hard to believe
No public lands should be sold to offset corrupt politicians spending.
The American people have been betrayed by their “representatives” for generations.
A person has to be filled with a special flavor of hate to support selling away the treasure left to us by the Founder’s, our public lands that have been guarded closely for generations. Is there any shame left in the WY soul? For our sins, future generations will use our graves as urinals.
No to selling public lands!!!
Public lands in public hands is the single most important issue facing the nation. There is no clearer issue that demonstrates how the GOP is utterly failing America and are fully bought and paid for by the oligarchs. This is the battlefield where we have to meet our enemy. We cannot lose this battle.
👍
The choice of our two senators is totally unsurprising. They have long since ceased to serve the people and interests of our state in favor of the wealthy. Can we please find people who actually want to serve us instead of rule us?
People of Wyoming, you love public land. Please contact your senators and representative about this! This will limit our access to hunt, camp and fish.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council is another organization that fights for our PUBLIC land.
Fellow Wyomingites, we must reject the selling of federal lands to support tax breaks for the wealthy. We must oust these clowns from office. A good place to start is by donating/ joining Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. RESIST.
100%. BHA focuses on this issue and does a lot of advocacy and makes sending letters to Congressional reps super easy. Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is another org to join and support if you love your public lands.
Why is the evil rich man always Elon? Why not Fred Eshelman, you remember one of ” Rich guys” who was blocking people from entering public lands. All he had to do was buy off local officials then use bought prosecutor and local law enforcement to enforce.
Agreed, Eschelman is a special hybrid of stupidity, evil, and wealth.
Perhaps Wyoming’s residents should set a time when all of us can inundate Barrasso and Lummis’ offices–might as well throw in Harriet’s offices too–with endless phone calls, emails, texts, etc., letting them know their position on the sale of public lands is, shall we say, untenable, particularly for their political futures.