by Mia Maldonado, Oregon Capital Chronicle
February 19, 2026
The Oregon Senate in a 17-11 vote Thursday advanced a bill meant to safeguard public lands against the threat of privatization.
Senate Bill 1590, sponsored by Sen. Anthony Broadman, D-Bend, would prohibit state agencies from using any funding, data, equipment or staff to help the federal government sell or transfer federal lands to private parties. The measure puts no restrictions on tribes.
Broadman brought the bill in response to efforts from congressional Republicans to include in their massive summer 2025 tax and spending law plans to sell between 2 to 3 million acres of federally-managed land across 11 Western states, including hiking trails and campgrounds in Oregon. Those provisions ultimately failed after receiving bipartisan pushback and because Congress could not guarantee that those lands wouldn’t be bought by antagonistic foreign interests. Sen. Anthony Broadman, D-Bend, on the Senate floor on Jan. 13, 2025. (Photo by Laura Tesler/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Roughly 53% of land in Oregon is managed by the federal government, specifically the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service.
“We will not collaborate with federal efforts to privatize our national parks, our monuments, our sacred places,” Broadman said.
The Senate advanced the bill along party lines, with Republicans citing concerns that the bill would limit private and public partnerships meant to manage the state’s natural resources and protect the health and safety of Oregonians.
Sen. Todd Nash, an Enterprise Republican and cattle rancher, said there are times when it is beneficial to transfer public lands to private hands.
“I just don’t want to put us in a place where we don’t have the benefit of doing that, allowing counties and the state of Oregon to participate in that transfer,” he said.
The bill heads to the House next.
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