Bozeman, MT. – Western Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke spoke with Jon Wertheim of 60 Minutes about his lifelong commitment to protecting public lands and his recent success stripping a provision that would have sold more than 450,000 acres of public land from the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act’, as well as working with his colleagues to remove a similar provision from the Senate version of the bill.
Watch the full episode here.
Read the full transcript of the episode here.
Excerpt from "Why Montana fought to protect federal public lands and what's at stake if they were sold off" - CBS “60 Minutes”
By Jon Wertheim, David M. Levine
Aired November 23, 2025
Zinke grew up in Whitefish, Montana and served as a secretary of the interior during President Trump's first term. Now, he represents western Montana in the house. He called the land sale proposal his San Juan Hill, a nod to Teddy Roosevelt, noted conservationist… Rough translation: over my dead body.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: Public lands is not, to me, on a balance sheet. Public lands is our inheritance- of this great nation. And we're blessed with it. There is no other country on the face of the planet that has the public land experience that we do.
On this issue, Zinke's no ideologue. On a case-by-case basis, within the existing laws, he says he's open to rethinking public land use. What he does oppose: wholesale selloff.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: You could sell the entirety of the federal estate, it's not gonna get you out of debt.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: If you have a hotel, and the hotel is being mismanaged, you don't sell the hotel. You get new management. And then if you sell the public land, you sell it all, right? Have you changed why you're in debt? No, you've just sold your assets.
Jon Wertheim: People supporting this say, "What's the harm of unlocking some of this so we can build affordable housing?" Why-- why are those people wrong?
Rep. Ryan Zinke: If we wanna discuss, you know, reality-- you know, selling all our public land for housing one it doesn't-- won't solve the housing crisis. And secondly-- you know, public land itself… if it's managed well, you should be able to bring timber off of it. You should be able to graze. Energy-- oil, coal, gas, all-- a lot of that comes from our public lands.
Zinke was instrumental in getting the land sale proposal killed in the House. He then coordinated with his colleagues in the Senate, where Mike Lee had crafted a special carve out exempting Montana. But that didn't win over the state's delegation. The measure was abandoned.
In a statement to "60 Minutes," Sen. Lee said in part, quote, "the federal government controls more land than it can manage, hurting the growth and prosperity of American families and their communities."
Perhaps more than any other state, Montana stood in the breach, thwarting the sale efforts, though there is widespread expectation public land sales will come up again in Congress.
Jon Wertheim: This is an era where party unity in-- in the Republican party is strong. You-- you went against the grain here. You stuck your neck out.
Rep. Ryan Zinke: It's a red, white, and blue issue. It's not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an American issue. And once you sell land, you're not gonna get it back.
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