Senate to Add Public Land Sales to Help Pay for Trump’s Tax

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Senate to Add Public Land Sales to Help Pay for Trump’s Tax Cuts

(Bloomberg) -- Senate Republicans plan to add the sale of public land into their version of President Donald Trump’s massive package of tax cuts, according to a key lawmaker.

Senator Mike Lee, the chairman of the committee with jurisdiction of energy and public land, told reporters Wednesday that a version of the plan would be included in their portion of the budget bill the panel plans to make public, likely on Monday.

House Republicans had initially sought to add the sales into their version of the bill, but the idea was thwarted amid opposition from lawmakers such as Montana Representative Ryan Zinke. The sale of hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in states including Utah and Nevada could help to raise billions of dollars to fund Trump’s tax cuts, but the politically charged idea has faced criticism, including from within Trump’s own party.

Lee, a Republican from Utah, said Montana would be exempted from sales in his version of the legislation.

Separately, the Senate’s environmental panel Wednesday released their portion of the budget bill that, similar to the House version, would delay by 10 years the collection of a fee on methane emissions from oil and gas producers and expedite federal environmental reviews of projects for a fee. The measure would also clawback a host of unused Inflation Reduction Act funding to help pay for the Republican megabill, similarly to what was passed by the House.