Alaska’s public lands already belong to each and everyone of us. Selling off the land where we hike, hunt, fish, berry pick, mountain bike and more to the highest bidder will directly harm our Alaskan way of life. Land agencies already have ways to identify public lands for uses like housing if it serves community needs. Jamming “land disposals” into a gargantuan budget bill is bad governance and is clearly geared towards special interests and major political donors.

The sale of these public lands sets a terrible precedent. If it passes, this would be the first time in modern land management that Congress would have mandated the sale of public lands simply to offset tax cuts and fund the federal government. 

This isn’t just about hunting, fishing, or recreation. It’s about the world we are leaving our kids. Public lands are one of our most valuable assets, and they maintain their value far into the future. 

As currently written, the bill mandates the disposal of at least 2-3 million acres of Bureau and Land Management and National Forest lands around communities. 

More than 82 million acres of BLM and Forest Service lands across Alaska are eligible. That’s 15,944,525 acres of Forest Service land and 66,886,862 acres of BLM lands. 

Lands in 11 states are eligible for sale including: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Montana is excluded from the mandated sales because of pushback from their Congressional delegation.

Normally, a bill needs 60 votes in the Senate to get past a filibuster rule. But this process, reconciliation, means the sale of public lands can be forced through with only 50 votes and a tie-breaking vote from the vice-president. This means every Senator’s vote is CRITICAL.

Currently, the bill mandates the land sales must be for housing or “associated uses” for at least ten years. This is problematic in multiple ways: the law does not require meaningful impacts on housing supply. “Associated uses” is an enormous, vague loophole that could privatize public lands for luxury homes, and eventually even resource development. After ten years, the land could be sold for any other use.Ten years of potential housing is also basically nothing when compared to the benefits provided by these lands remaining public and available to Alaskans and Americans, forever.

Bill text as of June 14, 2025

The Secretaries will solicit nominations for lands from “any interested parties” within 30 days with priority for nominations from states or local governments. The bill’s process for selling off lands runs at breakneck speed, until the arbitrary multi-million-acre goal is met, all without hearings, debate or public input.

All sales/conveyances must be completed within 5 years.

The language prohibits the nomination or sale of Wilderness Areas, National Monuments, Historic sites, lands designated for conservation or historic preservation purposes but leaves out administratively protected areas like recreation areas, Inventoried Roadless Areas, critical habitat areas etc. According to the bill text, land that is subject to “valid existing rights” is not eligible for sale. The bill does not include a definition of what are considered "valid existing rights."

State and local governments may be given first right of refusal to purchase any tracks of land offered for sale. While Alaska Tribes would be consulted, the bill fails to give sovereign Tribal Nations the right of first refusal to bid on lands, even for areas that are a part of their traditional homelands or contain sacred sites. An estimated 9-10 million acres on the Tongass are eligible for sale, which is everything excluding wilderness areas, national monuments, and some other federally protected lands.

The proposal does not require any appraisals prior to selling off public land.

The lands are only required to be housing for 10 years. What counts as “associated infrastructure” could be broad. Roads, mansions and private reserves, and extraction like logging, mining, etc.