Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke said Thursday he’ll voteagainst the Senate’s version of the GOP megabill — saying he disagrees with a provision that would mandate the sale of up to 1.2 million acres of public lands.
Zinke’s internal disagreements on the public land sales measure poses yet another complication in negotiations over a bill on which House Republicans can only afford to lose three votes.
“I agree with my colleagues that the federal government has mismanaged federal lands for decades. But I don’t agree with their solution,” said Zinke, who was Interior Secretary during Trump’s first term, in a post on the social platform X.
“The solution is not to sell public lands,” he added. “I remain a no on the senate reconciliation bill.”
In a separate interview with CNN that Zinke also posted on social media Thursday, he pushed back on land sale supporters’ argument that the land can be used for affordable housing.
“Affordable housing is tens of acres, not millions of acres,” he said.
He’s not the only GOP lawmaker to come out against the provision. Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) issued a statement dissing the bill Wednesday.
“I do not support a mandated disposition of millions of acres of federal land, the amount of which was arbitrarily established, the primary goal not being to respond to demand, but instead being the removal of land from federal ownership,” he added.
Welcome to The Hill’s Energy & Environment newsletter, I’m Rachel Frazin — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains.
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