WASHINGTON — Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said late Saturday that he had dropped his contentious plan to sell millions of acres of public lands from the sweeping domestic policy package that the Senate will soon begin debating. Lee made the announcement on social media after it became clear that the plan faced insurmountable opposition from within his own party. At least four Republican senators from Western states had said they planned to vote for an amendment to strike the proposal from the bill. The plan had also triggered intense pushback from conservative hunters and outdoorsmen across the American West, who had warned that it threatened the lands where they hunted and fished. …Lee said that, because of the strict rules governing the budgetary process … he was “unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families — not to any foreign interests.”

Additional coverage in the Utah Dispatch: Battles over public lands loom even after sell-off proposal fails