The Big Beautiful Land Grab: Technocrats Stand To Profit As 250 Million Acre Bonanza Hidden In H.R.1
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A little-known provision in the Senate’s new reconciliation bill isn’t just about selling public land - it’s about stripping local communities of control. The provision bans states and counties from regulating “AI Systems” for a full decade, opening the door to opaque development far beyond housing.
From data centers to deed-restricted zones, this bill rewrites who gets a say in the future of American land.
...
On one side, the
Senate Reconciliation Bill (
H.R.1) proposes to sell
2.2 to 3.3 million acres of BLM and Forest Service land—roughly
0.5% to 0.75% of Western federal holdings. But buried in the fine print is something more dangerous:
the bill makes over 250 million acres eligible for private nomination,
with no public input, no affordability mandates, and
no obligation to reveal who buys the land.
In short,
a technocrat's wet dream when it comes to the infrastructure needed to fuel AI empires...
...
This Isn’t Just a Land Sale. It’s a Lockout.
While the Senate bill is framed as a housing solution, the vast majority of BLM and Forest Service lands are located far from existing infrastructure. According to
Headwaters Economics, only a small fraction—estimated at under 2%—is near communities where housing is in demand. Moreover,
the bill includes no language requiring affordability, density, or public-serving outcomes, leaving open the potential for luxury or speculative development.
Combine that with Section 43201’s 10-year ban on state regulation of AI, potentially impacting local land use regulations, and various
federal regulations related to
land acquisition and
eminent domain use, and a different picture emerges.
