SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) –A move to sell of federal lands in Utah is gathering steam by members of Congress.
Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fl.) told Reuters “The federal government owns 70 percent of Utah, there are federal buildings, if you need cash let’s start liquidating.”
It’s an effort to deal with the nation’s deficit.
Congressman Ross heads a subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The subcommitte’s focus is to find ways to reduce the federal payroll.
But in Utah, members of the Congressional delegation are already embarking on proposals to sell off federal lands in Utah and throughout the west.
Utah has nearly 33 million acres of federal land in the state and U.S. Senator Mike Lee wants to tack on for sale signs to certain lands and giveaway others.
Senate Bill 683 targets 32 acres of federal land in Box Elder County. The forest service land would be handed over to the town of Mantua.
Another giveaway would send forest service land to the town of Alta.
But Senate Bill 635, co-sponsored by Senators Lee and John McCain (R-Az.) would sell off federal lands in the west, including Utah.
"It's been more than a decade since the land was deemed suitable for disposal and there is no critical need for the federal government to hold onto it," said Senator Lee in a prepared statement.
He estimates that the sale of 3.3 million acres throughout the west would bring in more than a billion dollars.
“I think that's one of the most short-sighted ideas I've heard,” said Mark Heileson of Utah’s Sierra Club. “When you think of what's valuable for the people of Utah it's public lands. It's where we go fishing and hunting and camping with our families."
The land sale is to help congress deal with the federal deficit.
The head of Utah's Tea Party is for the sale as long as it’s tied to spending cuts.
"Is this just another way for them to be spending more money?” asked David Kirkham. “Will they be taking this land and selling it off and using it to keep their spending levels at the atrocious levels that there at? That's the big concern."
According to Senator Lee’s staff the land targeted throughout the west was first identified as targets by the Clinton administration.
