Greetings, Beacon nation! Sell on, sell off, sell on. So goes the protracted intraparty battle over whether to authorize public land sales in President Donald Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill.

As the bill awaits action in the Senate, it appears the sell-off provision is back on. That’s according to E&E News, which reported yesterday that Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee, R-Utah, intends to revive the provision authorizing public lands sales that was previously cut from the House package. Although the Senate has yet to reveal its draft, it can bypass the filibuster and pass the measure with just 50 votes before returning it to the House, eliciting a degree of hypervigilance among public lands watchdogs.

Reports that Republicans plan to sell public lands to offset the deficit, as well as develop some areas for affordable housing, has generated pushback. Across Montana, state and federal agencies, land managers, timber stakeholders and conservation advocates are unequivocal in their opposition to land transfers, in large part because they say it is logistically and financially unfeasible, all of which begs the question: How will Montana’s delegation vote?

In April, during an initial debate over the budget resolution, Montana Sens. Steve Daines (pictured above) and Tim Sheehy crossed party lines to join the Democrats in support of an amendment that opposed the sale of public lands in the budget reconciliation process. While the amendment failed, Sheehy and Daines may have set the stage for broader opposition to sell off proposals as the Senate takes up the budget package in earnest.

Meanwhile, President Trump’s preliminary 2026 budget proposes drastic funding cuts to public land management agencies, including the National Park Service, as well as funding mechanisms such as the the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which sportsmen groups are calling a “gut punch” to public lands. Among the most significant concerns, according to the Montana Wildlife Federation, is Trump’s flip-flop on the LWCF, which was permanently authorized in 2020 by Daines’ Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) and is administered in the state by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Asked whether Montana’s senior U.S. Senator would oppose a land-sale provision in the Senate bill, Daines’ office provided the following statement: “Sen. Daines opposes public land sales.”

Per an analysis by the Center for Western Priorities, the White House budget would also be responsible for the following cuts:

National Park Service

• $897 million (34%) from park management
• 5,518 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions (40%)

Bureau of Land Management

• $45 million (75%) from national monuments and national conservation areas
• $114 million (77%) from wildlife habitat
• $45 million (67%) from transportation and facilities maintenance
• $45 million (63%) from recreation management
• $156 million (52%) from land resources
• $30 million (53%) from water resources
• $57 million (36%) from resource protection
• 1,157 FTE positions (22%)

Bureau of Indian Affairs

$140 million (25%) from public safety

U.S. Forest Service

4,636 FTE positions (33%)

I’m Tristan Scott, bringing you this Wednesday edition of the Daily Roundup.

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