OPINION: In a broken Congress, the West found common ground on public lands

Buried in the fine print of a sweeping federal package dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” was a quiet land grab. It would have sold off nearly 500,000 acres of public land in Utah and Nevada — half a million acres of forests, mountains and desert that belong to the American people. No hearings. No transparency. No accountability.

Just a mandate to sell.

For those of us who grew up on these lands, who camped under their skies and worked their soil, watching them almost disappear behind closed doors felt like losing a part of ourselves.

I didn’t come to Washington to play along with these power games. I came to protect the lands I grew up on — where families hunt, fish and camp; where tribes return to pray and pass down tradition; where rural communities rely on outdoor tourism to survive.

And when I saw what was happening, I got to work.

I teamed up with Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana — a Republican and former Interior Secretary — to launch the first-ever bipartisan Public Lands Caucus. That’s right: a Democrat from the Borderlands and a Republican from Big Sky country, finding common ground on something that should never be partisan — keeping public lands in public hands.

But this isn’t the first time we’ve worked together. We have introduced two bills: the Public Lands in Public Hands Act and the Habitat Connectivity on Working Lands Act, both aimed at strengthening protections and improving access. But before building momentum, we had to fight against a legislative ambush.

The land sell-off in the president’s bill tried to bypass the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which has governed public land sales since 1976. FLPMA was created to ensure public oversight and prevent this kind of shady backroom deal. This new proposal ignored all that. It was written to fast-track privatization without public input and accountability.

We pushed back. Hard. And we won.

That language is now gone from the bill — scrapped because of bipartisan pressure from those of us who still believe in fighting for what’s right.

Look, I know “bipartisan” isn’t a word that excites most people. In today’s Washington, it sounds like a watered-down compromise. But in this case, it meant putting aside the noise, the cable news drama and the culture war soundbites to do something that actually mattered: protecting land that belongs to you.

The truth is, this fight wasn’t just about acres and boundary lines. It was about who we are as a country. Public lands are one of the few things we still share, no matter your politics or background. They’re a birthright. A promise that there are still places you can go in this country that haven’t been sold off, fenced in or developed into oblivion.

They’re also an economic lifeline. In New Mexico, outdoor recreation supports over 30,000 jobs. From elk hunting in the Gila to rafting the Rio Grande, public lands fuel entire economies, especially in rural communities. Stripping access to those lands is stripping opportunity from working people.

And yet, time and again, we see attempts to privatize them. To auction them off to oil and gas developers. To pave them over in the name of “progress.” What’s happening isn’t accidental — it’s strategic. And it’s on all of us to push back.

When I talk to folks in my district — Democrats, Republicans, independents — they don’t ask me to deregulate more industries or hand out more tax breaks. They ask me to protect what’s ours. They ask me to do my job.

And it’s why I was proud to be named one of the top five most effective freshman legislators in the 118th Congress. Not because I play the game, but because I know when to fight and who I’m fighting for.

This public lands victory is proof that even in a broken Congress, we can still win when we work together — and when we lead with values.

But the fight isn’t over. Next time, the attack might be bigger. Bolder. Better hidden.

So here’s my promise: I’ll keep calling it out. I’ll keep building bridges where I can, and drawing lines when I must. I’ll keep protecting the lands that define us — lands that deserve to stay wild, sacred and free.

Because in the end, public lands don’t need another public relations campaign. They need guardians.

And I’m not going anywhere.