During the Vice-Presidential debate, J. D. Vance was asked about affordable housing, and his response fell right in line with what American Stewards has advocated – the reduction of federal land inventory.
Vance’s answer specifically was: “Well…we have a lot of federal lands that are not being used for anything…and they could be places where we build a lot of housing.”
According to Bonner Cohen, senior policy analyst with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), said: “Vance’s reference to ‘a lot of land’ is an understatement.”
In a recent article published by Cohen, he notes the land in question is not national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, national monuments, wilderness areas, or military bases. Rather, it’s vast swaths of federal land in the West administered by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM oversees 245 million acres, or 382,812.5 square miles, an area slightly larger than France, Germany, and Austria combined, stated Cohen.
Vance’s and Cohen’s contention is, “[T]he housing crunch is for real.” According to CBRE Research, an international commercial real estate firm, there is a shortage of 3.8 million housing units in the U.S. and one way to reverse this is to increase the amount of land on which homes can be built.
American Stewards has long recommended reducing the federal land inventory by selling specific parcels of federal lands better utilized if returned to the private sector, excluding federal lands protected by Congress. See our “16 Ways to Reverse 30×30.”
This would help local economies, increase proper management of the land through private stewardship, and reduce the federal budget. We’ve recommended they begin selling lands in Counties with 50 percent or more of their lands currently federally owned. .
In 2023, Donald Trump “called for the construction of ten ‘freedom cities’ on undeveloped federal land. The homes in these cities would be built in rural settings, where food could be produced on surrounding land that could be augmented by supermarkets, pharmacies, schools, churches, doctor’s offices, restaurants all serving people’s needs and all built on private land in American tradition.”
Most of the BLM managed lands are in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. Cohen made a very insightful comment about these lands. He said: “These states may have their own elected officials and capital cities, but, in many respects, they are colonies lorded over by bureaucrats in distant Washington, D.C.”
In fact, the federal government owns 50 percent of the land in the 13 Western States. Local, State and Federal governments own 40 percent of the land nationwide. Increasing federal land ownership is in direct conflict with the core principle of America’s founding – the people would own the land. This ensured the people could protect their individual liberty, be self-sustaining, limit government power, and prevent the government from self-funding, all essential elements of a truly free society.
Cohen concluded by saying in making the pitch to Congress to open these lands to residential and commercial development, they should be reminded “that we are not a nation of land socialists”.
Read Bonner Cohen’s story here.
