As the famous Vladimir Lenin quote goes, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

This week felt like the latter. Protests in Los Angeles — and President Donald Trump’s decision to send troops to the city — have reverberated across the country, including in Las Vegas. Federal law enforcement officials wrestled a U.S. senator to the ground at a press conference. And a new war in the Middle East may be on the horizon.

Through it all, the U.S. Senate has still been working through the reconciliation bill — and though far down the list of headlines this week, land sale provisions being debated could have major downstream effects on Nevada, where the federal government owns over 80 percent of state land. Today, we’re zeroing in on the Energy & Natural Resources section. 

The News of the Week: Public lands for sale

Here’s a quick primer on the on-again, off-again effort to sell public lands to generate revenue for Republicans’ reconciliation bill:

• May 7: Reps. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Celeste Maloy (R-UT) introduced surprise amendments to the Natural Resources section of the bill designating hundreds of thousands in Nevada and Utah for sale. The House Natural Resources Committee adopts the amendment, and passes their portion of the bill, after midnight, over the objections of Democrats.
• May 21: After Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) announces he will oppose the bill if it includes public lands sales, House Republican leaders remove it from the reconciliation bill via a manager’s amendment. The House of Representatives passes the bill, sending it to the Senate. 
• June 11: Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) releases the Senate version of the Energy & Natural Resources title. Although the bill does not designate specific acreage in Nevada, the state is included in a list of 11 where land management agencies are directed to sell millions of acres of federal land.

Lee, who has long eyed public lands sales as a way to accommodate growth in the West and opposed new conservation efforts, has taken a new tack with public lands sales.

His draft legislation directs the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service to each dispose of between 0.5 percent and 0.75 percent of the lands they manage. That figure translates to between 2 million and 3 million acres, and is estimated to generate between $5 billion and $10 billion.

Eleven Western states — all save for Montana, whose Republican senators oppose public land sales — are listed as eligible for land sales. Of the 11 states included, seven have Democratic senators, while the four represented by Republicans are ostensibly more sympathetic.

Lands with existing leases or conservation easements — such as national parks — are not included. Under the proposal, land tracts would be selected by nomination from any interested parties and a list of land for sale must be published every 60 days.

Under the bill, federal agencies would need to consult with affected governors, local governments and tribes — but none has any veto power over a sale. Purchasers would need to state their planned use for the land tract, and note if it will be used to address any housing needs. 

Federal agencies are instructed to prioritize the sale of parcels that are nominated by state and local governments, have housing potential and reduce the checkerboard land pattern — in which every other square mile is publicly owned and staggered with private parcels, found throughout Nevada in places such as Pershing County. 

The Nevada Angle

Nevada and national conservation groups have been (predictably) apoplectic over the proposal.

Shaaron Netherton, the executive director of Friends of Nevada Wilderness, said in a statement that “anyone, including developers of starter castles and exclusive high-end neighborhoods, can ask the agencies to sell them parcels of our public lands.”

The conservation group is particularly worried about sales in the Ruby Mountains in the eastern part of the state, lands outside Mt. Rose Wilderness in Northern Nevada, the Spring Mountains in Southern Nevada and the Humboldt-Toiyabe Forest. If the 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent range is applied in Nevada, the federal government would sell between 240,000 and 360,000 acres.

Nevada Democrats have long supported compromises that convey parcels of public land that make sense for development in exchange for putting large swaths of other land under new conservation protections. Under prior Nevada lands bills, revenue generated from sales has always stayed in Nevada for environmental projects, schools and water needs.

In the Senate reconciliation bill, 90 percent of sale revenue would be returned to the U.S. Treasury to pay down debt. Five percent would go to the local government with jurisdiction where a parcel was sold, and 5 percent to the state to federal land management agencies to address backlogs in the state — a big change from past lands bills.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) said she and other Western Democrats were not consulted on the legislation, and opposed both the process and outcome.

“If they're to go out and sell federal land and not include any of us, there's no way our local governments, let alone our state government, will be able to have the infrastructure, the water to continue to meet those needs,” she said in an interview Wednesday before the proposal was released.

Amodei, meanwhile, said his staff had been in contact with Lee’s on the proposal. He still sees the reconciliation bill as the best opportunity to achieve some level of conveyance.

“It's almost like a one-shot thing,” he said Wednesday. “It’s like, hey, great.”

The Impact

All eyes now turn to Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy — two Montana Republicans who have been opposed to public lands sales. 

Will Montana being left out of the land sale be enough to secure their votes? And if it is, will Zinke make another stand in the House to block the Senate’s proposal? 

Around the Capitol

💬Cortez Masto to Noem: Resign — Cortez Masto quickly called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s resignation Thursday after Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) was thrown to the ground and handcuffed at Noem’s press conference in Los Angeles. 

“This is not who we are as a country,” Cortez Masto said in a video posted to X. “This is not who we are as Americans. And I thought freedom of speech meant something.”

💲CCM finds new ally on tribal tax reform — Cortez Masto reintroduced a bill Wednesday to reform how tribes are taxed — but this Congress, she found a Republican ally.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) signed onto the bill, which aims to create parity between tribes and state and local governments in the tax code through a host of changes that would give tribes access to various economic development tools that already exist in the tax code.

What I’m Reading

Nevada Current: Governor, entire NV congressional delegation tell Trump to keep Nevada JobCorps funded

There’s serious bipartisan support for the federal job training program.

The Nevada Independent: Amodei bucks Trump in vote on funding for public broadcasting

The Elmo red line.

Axios: Amodei’s red(ish) lines

The Nevada Republican is no longer using the term “red line.”

Notable and Quotable

“In Nevada, we are now seeing the benefits of sporting travel. It could have an impact on that as well.”

— Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), on how the Trump administration’s immigration and tariff policies could hurt travel to the U.S. for sporting events such as the World Cup in 2026