Bullshit Doug Burgum, Giving Away Public Land Won’t Create Affordable Housing

Fact checking the Interior Secretary’s plan to give public lands to developers

Yesterday, Secretaries Doug Burgum (Interior) and Scott Turner (HUD) co-authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled, “Federal Land Can Be Home Sweet Home.” In it, they propose giving away public lands in order to address the nation’s housing crisis. The Secretaries also warn that “bad-faith critics” will argue their plan is nothing more than “a free-for-all to build on federal lands.” Since I’m the critic they’re talking about, I guess I should explain why their plan is exactly that. I’ll let you decide who’s acting in bad-faith here.

DOI has helpfully re-printed the op-ed as a press release, which you can read in full here, free of WSJ’s paywall. The Secretaries also read it aloud in the badly-lit video embedded below, before signing some sort of proclamation. That’s odd, because disposing of public lands requires an act of Congress. Let’s start there, since that feature really cuts to the heart of the lie they’re telling here.