Sponsors
Introduced March 25, 2025 by Mark E. Amodei · Last progress March 25, 2025
The bill shifts significant federal land management and control to local, state, and tribal entities—providing large conservation designations, local revenue streams, and infrastructure tools—while transferring cleanup costs, upfront conveyance expenses, and oversight away from the federal government, reducing public landholdings and public-review protections.
Many thousands of acres (including ~125,000+ acres of designated Wilderness and hundreds of acres for public parks and a cemetery) are permanently protected or converted to public parks, preserving habitat, recreation, and open space for local and rural communities.
Counties and local projects receive new, dedicated revenue and special-account funding (e.g., 10% to counties, 5% to education, deposits into regional special accounts) that can be used without new annual appropriations to fund conservation, habitat protection, wildfire prevention, and capital improvements.
Transfers of land into trust and clarified rights‑of‑way (e.g., Washoe Tribe acreage additions; Walker River Paiute compensation and NEPA review) strengthen tribal land bases, increase tribal revenue streams, and give tribes clearer authority over certain land uses.
States, counties, districts, tribes, or private buyers may inherit contamination and cleanup costs because the federal government is generally not required to remediate conveyed lands beyond disclosure.
Local governments and districts must pay substantial upfront conveyance costs (appraisals, surveys, environmental reviews) and often fair market value, creating significant fiscal burdens on municipalities and local taxpayers.
The bill reduces federal public land holdings via sales and conveyances, which could limit long-term public access and conservation options and enable private development that changes local character and recreational access.
Based on analysis of 24 sections of legislative text.
Transfers specified federal lands in Nevada to state, local, and tribal entities, authorizes land sales/exchanges and a federal office complex, and sets conditions, payments, and use restrictions.
Transfers dozens of specific federal land parcels in Nevada to the State, cities, counties, special districts, and a tribal trust option for specified uses such as parks, flood management, recreation, cemetery, public purposes, and infrastructure. Recipients generally must pay fair market value or assume costs of conveyance (surveys, appraisals, environmental review), accept deeds subject to valid existing rights, and follow use restrictions and potential reversion if lands are used inconsistently. Also authorizes creation of a multi-agency federal office complex in Nevada funded in part by a percentage of receipts from special accounts, directs mapping and technical corrections for conveyances, preserves existing water rights, and sets rules for a transmission project right-of-way if trust lands are acquired by the Walker River Paiute Tribe. The federal government will satisfy CERCLA disclosure obligations but typically will not perform remediation before transfer; many conveyances waive some planning or procedural requirements and require local entities to cover costs and follow specified management terms.