The Senate’s Budget Bill: A Massive Giveaway of Alaska’s Wildest Places 

On June 11, 2025, the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee dropped the latest version of its budget bill and with it, a direct attack on public lands, climate progress, and our last wild places. 

This isn’t budgeting. It’s a giant giveaway to billionaires, Big Oil, and mining interests. And Alaska? Alaska is ground zero. 

If this bill passes, it would force one of the largest public land sell-offs in modern history. It would open the door to oil and gas drilling in places where no drilling should ever happen. It would fast-track a destructive mining road through some of the wildest, most intact ecosystems left on the planet. All so Congress can pretend it’s paying for massive tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. 

What’s Actually in the Bill? 

A massive public land sell-off. 
The bill requires the federal government to sell off between 2.1 and 3.3 million acres of public lands across 11 states — including Alaska — by 2030. While it claims to sell this land for housing, there are no affordability requirements or long term restrictions for land use. No conservation protections. No limits on what gets built. Just a land rush to privatize our shared places where people hunt, fish, hike, and find peace. 

Forced oil and gas leasing on a mind-boggling scale. 

• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: The bill mandates four lease sales over the next decade, locking in Trump’s weak 2020 leasing plan and gutting protections for wildlife, the Coastal Plain, and subsistence resources. 

• Western Arctic: Five lease sales required over 10 years, with the first within 12 months. It would also wipe out Biden’s 2024 Special Area protections — protections that thousands of Alaskans and Americans are still fighting for right now. 

• Cook Inlet Offshore: Six oil and gas lease sales, each offering at least 1 million acres, relying on outdated plans that shortchange environmental review. 

A rubber stamp for destructive mining. 
The bill mandates approval of the Ambler Road — a 211-mile industrial corridor slicing through critical wildlife habitat near the Brooks Range. The Biden administration rejected the project for good reason: it threatens caribou, salmon, and the health of local communities. This bill would force it through in 90 days, with no meaningful review and no real chance for the public to weigh in. 

What This Means for Alaska — And All of Us 

Let’s not sugarcoat it. If this passes, it’s a major setback for huge swaths of Alaska’s wild lands. 

Public lands lost — forever. Once these places are sold off, they’re gone. No second chances. No undo button.  

Wildlife habitat destroyed. Caribou calving grounds. Migratory bird sanctuaries. Salmon streams. All put at risk to appease industry and shareholder profits. 

Climate disaster accelerated. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet. Mandating new oil and gas drilling here? It’s like tossing gasoline on a fire and pretending it’s responsible governance. 

A distraction from the real agenda. The forced land sales, the lease mandates, the mining greenlights — they’re not about energy security or housing. They’re about creating political cover for giant tax breaks for billionaires. Congress is trying to trade away our future to pay for giveaways to the ultra-wealthy. 

This Is a Generational Decision 

We have a choice: Fight for our shared public lands, for climate action, and for future generations. Or let them be sold off for the short-term profits of a few. 

In the coming weeks, this bill may go to a Senate vote before going back to the House for one last vote. And all bets are off if it lands on Trump’s desk.  

Take action now and tell your lawmakers: Public lands are not for sale. Not now. Not ever. 

The Arctic isn’t for sale. The Western Arctic isn’t for sale. Cook Inlet isn’t for sale. And our public lands sure as hell aren’t for sale to fund billionaire tax breaks.