Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) scaled back his measure to sell federal land to address the nationwide housing shortage. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough cut it earlier this week, and it has separately created significant controversy, including among some conservative conservationists.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled on Monday that Lee’s measure in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act violated the Byrd Rule. The rule limits the measures that can be included in budget reconciliation, requiring that any provisions contained in reconciliation be primarily fiscal in their effects. 

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Republicans are trying to advance the bill to enact President Donald Trump’s tax and spending agenda through reconciliation, a legislative process allowing bills to bypass the filibuster and pass with only a simple majority in the Senate. 

Lee’s updated measure would require the sales of between 0.25% and 0.5% of the 245 million acres currently owned by the Bureau of Land Management, or between 612,500 and 1.225 million acres, according to the text obtained by The Hill. 

The revised text said that sold land must be used “solely for the development of housing or to address any infrastructure and amenities to support local needs associated with housing.”

It only includes land under the Bureau of Land Management, leaving out the U.S. Forest Service. The new version also excludes federally protected land and would require the land sold to be within five miles of “the border of a population center.”

MIKE LEE DEFENDS FEDERAL LAND SALES FROM LEFT AND RIGHT

Recently, Lee has been defending his measure against environmentalists and fellow conservatives who say it would harm the Nation’s most protected lands. The changes made to the measure seem to reflect the complaints brought by critics of the bill.

Lee told reporters on Wednesday evening that the Senate parliamentarian is debating the measure.