The Trump administration is officially moving to shrink the federal government’s huge land holdings. It has unveiled a plan to sell public lands to states, tribes and local governments.
The Interior Department set out the goal in a new five-year strategic plan released Tuesday and pledged to “work to decrease the size of the federal estate.” It is the first time a Trump administration policy has plainly endorsed federal land sales. The department’s strategic plan during Trump’s first term made no mention of land sales, swaps or disposals.
“Through these sales, the Department will be able to focus its resources on primary federal responsibilities and nationally significant federal lands,” the agency wrote.
The plan lays out Interior’s priorities from 2026 through 2030. It also calls for strategic land transfers and exchanges to support more energy production, a centerpiece of the administration’s energy dominance agenda. And it says Interior will no longer use the Land and Water Conservation Fund to expand the federal government’s real estate footprint. Interior officials said part of any sale proceeds would go to conservation elsewhere.
Agency officials did not say which lands could be sold or give the scope or location of possible sales.
Washington’s land holdings are enormous, especially in the West. Federal agencies manage about 640 million acres, which Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has called “America’s balance sheet.” In some Western states, the federal government controls most of the land. Nevada, for example, is almost 80% under federal control, which has held back local growth.
Last year, Burgum and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner proposed using “underutilized” federal land to ease the nation’s housing shortage. Turner said about 7 million homes were needed.
The plan faces steep hurdles. A law Congress passed in the 1970s largely restricted federal land sales. Since then, the government has allowed only limited sales and swaps, in cases where the public or conservation benefit was exceptionally clear. Land under protected status cannot be sold, according to Mark Squillace, a natural resources law professor at the University of Colorado Law School.
Opposition surfaced quickly, including from within the GOP. Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, who was Interior secretary during Trump’s first term, “remains firmly opposed to the sale or transfer of public lands,” his office said. It added that he would vote against any such legislation before he leaves Congress at the end of this term.
Democrats, emboldened by their midterm wins and set to take control of Congress in January, vowed to fight.
“These lands belong to the American people, not private interests looking to cash in. Public lands belong in public hands,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., who is expected to lead the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress.
California Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman also said Democrats would resist the move.
Future administrations would not be bound by the strategic plan. It is also unclear whether Burgum can reach the administration’s goals without help from Congress.
Even so, the plan makes clear where the administration stands: much of the land Washington owns should be put to use, not just held.
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