🚨 There’s a lot of horrific news out of Washington right now—but you might have missed this: Senate Republicans just introduced a plan to sell off 120 million acres of our public lands.
Let me break down what’s in the bill and why it’s a full-scale land grab. 🧵
Buried in a Senate budget bill is a massive giveaway to corporate developers and fossil fuel companies.
It forces the sale of at least 2 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land in 11 Western states *every 60 days* until millions of acres are gone.
These aren’t just any lands.
They include:
🌱 Wilderness study areas
🌲 Roadless national forests
🫎 Big game migration corridors
🥾Local recreation lands
❤️🔥 Tribal homelands and sacred sites (with NO right of first refusal)
This would be the largest public lands sell-off in modern U.S. history and it's happening with no hearings, no debate, and no public input.
See what public lands would be available for sale: wilderness.org/articles/media…
The bill is a double betrayal:
It sells out your access to America’s outdoor heritage to fund tax breaks for billionaires.
And let’s be clear: this isn't about affordable housing.
The bill has NO safeguards to ensure lands are actually used for housing. They can be resold for other uses after 10 years. It’s a Trojan horse.
Meanwhile, under-resourced local governments are expected to bid against commercial developers -without help.
Tribal Nations aren’t even allowed a first shot at reclaiming their own sacred lands.
The result? A Wild West-style land rush, all to fund giveaways to the rich at the expense of veterans, rural communities, Indigenous nations, and every American who cherishes wild places.
This is the exact kind of scam we’ve seen before: short-term profits for powerful interests, long-term loss for the public.
It sets a precedent to liquidate public lands anytime a politician needs to fund a pet project.
I’m a lifelong Californian, a Marine Corps veteran, and the CEO of @VetVoiceFound. I served to defend this country, and I’ll fight to defend its lands, too.
If you care about hunting, hiking, wildlife, clean water, or just the idea that public lands belong to all of us, it’s time to raise hell.
Call your senators. Call the media.
Call it what it is: A war on the American West.
This thread has picked up crazy traction - so I just asked @Senator @BasedMikeLee to a town hall w/me, other veterans, and Americans of all political backgrounds to explain his rationale for trying to sell off our public lands. Please help amplify:
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.