Sen Mike Lee of Utah is behind the provision; he is Chair of the Senate committee on energy and natural resources. His stated interest is to make land available for private development around existing localities in Utah that are “hemmed in” by federal land.

However, the bill is being considered under reconciliation rules so it supposed to only do things related to revenue, mandatory spending, or federal debt. So as a technical matter, the land sales are in the bill purely as a revenue raiser. A lot of folks who might be sympathetic to Sen Lee’s interest in housing are very uncomfortable with what is on paper a straight land-for-money sale. Seems like a bad precedent, like a dairy farm that starts selling its cows to pay expenses.

A few Republican senators have stated opposition: Crapo, Risch, and Daines are what I’ve seen so far. With 53 GOP members, they can’t afford to lose any more.

Personally I’m sympathetic to the housing needs of localities in the West. But I don’t think this belongs in a pure budget bill, and I feel like the long-standing movement to “privatize the West” has poisoned the well and makes it hard to believe this actually just a little housing thing.