Utah Sen. Mike Lee has proposed changes to the Senate appropriations bill that could open the door for the sale of national parks, according to national park advocacy groups. 

Lee, chairman of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced an amendment Monday that would remove a section of the bill that orders the Department of the Interior to maintain federal lands — national park units, national scenic or historic trails, wild and scenic rivers — as federal land. The section also states that national parks need to be staffed by federal employees.

According to the Center for Western Priorities, the statement was originally added to the appropriations bill after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum suggested disposing of some park units this spring. 

“A vote in favor of Senator Lee’s amendment is a vote to sell America’s national parks,” said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Park Conservation Association, in a statement. “And we won’t stand for it.” 

Jordan Roberts, a spokesperson for Lee, disagreed with this interpretation. “The Department of the Interior has no authority to sell national parks, and nothing in this amendment would create such authority,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “This amendment resolves an error that interfered with bills routinely considered by the [Energy and Natural Resources] Committee. Senator Lee opposes the sale of National Parks.”

Roberts did not respond to questions about what error he was referring to, or how it interfered with other legislation. 

The language isn’t as explicit as other previous attempts to sell public lands. But advocacy groups say given the administration’s intent, they read striking the amendment as a way of removing national parks from federal government ownership. “This passing would be sending a green light message to the White House that it’s OK to sell off parks,” Kati Schmidt, communications director for the National Park Conservation Association, said. 

While Bureau of Land Management lands can be sold if they meet certain objectives, selling National Park lands would require an act of Congress. 

Pierno called on senators to oppose Lee’s amendment. “Nobody benefits if our national parks are gutted,” she said. “Nobody asked for this. Nobody wants this.”

Retired park leaders say the proposal could “gut national parks and end the National Park Service as we know it.” “This proposal is more than just wrongheaded, it is flat out dangerous,” said Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, in a statement. 

Congress must agree on an approved budget before it becomes law. Tucked inside the appropriations bill, Lee’s amendment is part of a new package that would fund the Department of the Interior, among several other agencies, through September. Funding is set to lapse again on Jan. 30, prompting another government shutdown if agreements haven’t been made by that time.  

Utah, Lee’s home state, is home to what’s referred to as the “mighty five” iconic national parks: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands. But Lee has been a champion of public land sales and transfers in the past, introducing numerous bills in recent months that have made advocacy groups suspicious of his intent. 

He led the highly unpopular attempt to make 258 million acres of public land eligible for sale, including millions near Yosemite and Tahoe, in June. The contentious plan was eventually scrapped. He revived attempts to roll back federal land protection in October, in the name of border security.

The amendment is yet another development in the Trump administration’s many attempts to sell, transfer or shrink public lands, as well as defund the agencies that manage them. “This continues a pattern we have seen from the Administration that has left our national parks understaffed, underfunded, and in crisis,” Thompson said. 

It all began in February, when the Trump administration started firing federal workers in what’s been referred to as the “Valentine’s Day Massacre.” The National Park Service has lost at least 24% of its permanent staff since then. 

In April, a leaked draft of an Interior Department document showed the administration is considering shrinking six national monuments for resource extraction. In May, President Donald Trump released his proposed budget, which would axe $1.2 billion in funding from the National Park Service. It also would authorize the sale and offloading of unspecified smaller park units. National parks lost more than $25 million in uncollected recreation fees during the fall government shutdown. 

A vote on the larger spending bill Lee tucked his amendment inside may come this week, the last week of congressional action before Christmas. Both the Senate and the House are tentatively in recess from Dec. 20 through the end of the year.