Overview

• Lee formally removed the land-sale mandate from the 940-page reconciliation package ahead of the Senate vote on Sunday.
• Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough had struck both the original and scaled-back proposals as failing the Byrd Rule’s budgetary test.
• Environmental groups, outdoor recreation advocates and five House Republicans warned the sell-off would cost the broader tax and spending bill crucial votes.
• Lee had defended targeted sales of BLM land within five miles of towns to address housing shortages but conceded he could not secure enforceable safeguards.
• With the provision gone the package can proceed by simple majority, yet its passage remains at risk without full GOP cohesion.