Sen Lee's proposal to sell federal land for housing gets blocked, won't be in 'big beautiful bill'

The Senate's parliamentarian effectively ruled Monday that Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee's proposal to sell 3.3 million acres to help ease the country's housing-shortage problem cannot be part of President Trump's "big beautiful" tax-and-spending bill.

Republicans, who have 53 of the Senate's 100 members, are trying to pass the bill through the process known as budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority, meaning 51 votes. 

The parliamentarian said the proposal violated reconciliation rules that limited "extraneous" measures, according to the news outlet Axios.

Lee wanted to sell 3.3 million acres of federal land to be used to build houses.

“The U.S. government owns 640 million acres – nearly a third of all land in the U.S.,” Lee wrote on the social media platform X last week. “Making a fraction of one percent of that land available for housing – land found in or next to existing residential developments – would help alleviate the housing shortage in federal-land states.”

Lee's proposal got pushback from the political left and right, arguing the proposal could damage the nation’s scenic landscapes, interfere with law enforcement activities and upend livestock industries.