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This initiative, led by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and HUD Secretary Scott Turner, aims to leverage the vast tracts of land under federal control to alleviate the shortage and high cost of homes across the nation.
According to the Daily Caller, the Task Force on Federal Land for Housing is a strategic response to the housing affordability crisis. It builds on two previously proposed pieces of legislation designed to give states more control over their land management. "The truth of the matter is the federal government holds a lot of relatively valuable parcels that most people don’t even know about that are close to metro areas that they’ve got by default or neglect or don’t even necessarily know that they own," said Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research (IRE), in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Kish, who has extensive experience working on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the Interior Department, shed light on the task force's objectives. He pointed out the paradox of a land shortage in a country with vast federal lands. "It’s just impossible to build anything because of the shortage of land, and yet you’ve got no shortage of land, what you have is a shortage of ownership in private hands and a regulatory regime that keeps people from being able to build anything," Kish explained.
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The task force is part of President Trump's executive order to combat the cost-of-living crisis, starting with a thorough assessment of the most pressing housing needs. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reveals a sharp increase in median home prices since 2009, with a significant spike in 2020 and 2021. The Heritage Foundation reports that as of May 2024, families are paying $13,300 more per year for the same house than they did in January 2021. The conservative think tank attributes this surge in housing prices, which rose by approximately 114.5% during former President Joe Biden’s term, largely to the administration’s "runaway spending."
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The Trump administration is prioritizing areas with a severe housing shortage, working closely with state and local leaders who have the best understanding of their communities' needs. The federal government oversees approximately 650 million acres, primarily in the Western U.S., with states like Nevada and Utah being over 80% and 60% federally owned, respectively.
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In their op-ed, Secretaries Turner and Burgum outlined their plan to identify locations that can support homes while carefully considering environmental impact and land-use restrictions. "Working together, our agencies can take inventory of underused federal properties, transfer or lease them to states or localities to address housing needs, and support the infrastructure required to make development viable—all while ensuring affordability remains at the core of the mission," they wrote.
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However, they emphasized that their plan is not a free-for-all to build on federal lands. Kish echoed this sentiment, clarifying that the task force will not advocate for building homes in national parks, but rather will inventory underused resources in local communities. "There’s gonna be people who scream bloody murder and say they’re selling off the national parks, but that’s hyperbole," Kish said. "In essence what we’re talking about here is taking a look at our resource base and seeing whether it doesn’t make some sense to free it up."
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Kish also noted that while some states might initially resist the task force, others are eager to gain access to federal land, particularly Utah, where Republican Sen. Mike Lee has long advocated for the ability to build housing on federal land. "Utah has been fighting for more control over its land for a long time," Kish said. "The ability to have more control over federal lands and more say-so over what happens on federal lands within its reach would lead [states] to a different conclusion. I think ultimately states would see it in the benefit to have a stake in ownership or partial ownership or more of a say in how their lands are managed."
The task force's housing plans are rooted in the Helping Open Underutilized Space to Ensure Shelter (HOUSES) Act, introduced in the Senate in 2023 by Senator Lee. The act, cosponsored by Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso of Wyoming and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, aims to enable states and localities to purchase unused federal land near existing communities for the purpose of building single-family homes. "Senator Lee is looking forward to working with the Trump administration to tackle this important issue together," a spokesperson for Lee told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has also collaborated with Turner on the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act, introduced in the fall of 2024. This bill seeks to reform all sectors of the housing market, increase the supply of affordable housing, and improve the quality of life for families by providing economic opportunity in communities across the nation. "Homeownership is key to the American Dream, which is why I’ve continued to work on solutions to put more Americans on the path towards homeownership," Scott said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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The Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing is a critical component of these efforts to boost the supply of affordable housing. "It is our desire that we can build as many homes as possible — quality living spaces of all kinds for the American people," Turner told the Daily Caller News Foundation in January. A representative for Turner added, "He is the person we need to reform failed federal housing policies, cut red tape, and find innovative solutions to expand access to quality, affordable housing."
While the HUD spokesperson was unable to provide further details on the task force at this time, the Department of Interior did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Despite these unanswered questions, the task force's initiative represents a significant step towards addressing the housing crisis, demonstrating the potential of federal lands to contribute to the solution.
