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Colorado’s U.S. senators are vowing to fight a proposal mandating the sale of millions of acres of public lands, as other elected officials and users of local federal acreage joined them Friday in decrying the idea.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said during an online press conference Friday that “no matter your party, auctioning off our children’s and grandchildren’s inheritance is the last thing that we’re going to do. We’re going back to Washington and we’re going to continue to fight this.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is proposing that the federal budget reconciliation bill include a provision to sell between 0.5% and 0.75% of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands in numerous states including Colorado to make that land available for local housing and related community needs. The proposal could result in the sale of more than 3 million acres.

“We’re opening underused federal land to expand housing, support local development and get Washington D.C. out of the way of communities that are just trying to grow,” Lee said in a video.

U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said in a news release, “Our public lands are not for sale now, or ever. We stopped a similar effort in the House — we’ll stop this one, too.”

An effort to include a provision in a House reconciliation bill to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of federal land in Utah and Nevada was dropped from a final reconciliation bill passed in the House. U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, R-Grand Junction, had voted against the land-sale provision in a House committee vote.

U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, Brittany Pettersen and Jason Crow, all D-Colo., joined Bennet on Friday in speaking out against Lee’s proposal. So did state Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, who sponsored a resolution that was passed nearly unanimously by the state Legislature this year voicing Colorado’s support for public lands and opposing any national legislative efforts to sell them off.

“The Legislature spoke very clearly, urging our members of Congress in Colorado and across the country to not do this,” Roberts said.

Neguse called Lee’s provision “a five-alarm fire” for public lands preservation, and for hunters, anglers, conservationists, recreationists and every Coloradan who enjoys public lands and is committed to preserving them for future generations.

He also called it shameful that the sale revenues would be used to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and large corporations in the reconciliation bill.

An FAQ from Lee’s committee says the provision would generate an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion over 10 years. Five percent of revenues would go to deferred maintenance of BLM and Forest Service in the states where lands are sold; much of what remains would go to the U.S. Treasury, where according to the FAQ it would help reduce the deficit.

“There’s nothing like this issue that will fire up people like me to get involved politically,” Tony Prendergast, a Crawford rancher, outfitter, hunting guide and member of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, said Friday during the press conference organized by Bennet. “The depth of the anger I feel and the disappointment in those elected officials who are putting this proposal forward and those who will support it is just intense for me.”

He said the BLM sells off isolated parcels where appropriate now, with the money being used for purposes such as conservation and public lands access, not funding tax breaks and paying down debt.

“Every rancher knows that if you start whittling away at the ranch to pay bills, eventually you won’t have a ranch, you won’t have a livelihood,” he said.

He said public land provides a livelihood for much of the economy, and for people including himself.

Sarah Shrader, president of the Grand Valley Outdoor Recreation Coalition, said during the press conference that access to public lands “is not just about adventure for us, it’s about livelihoods and sustainable economic growth.

“… These lands must remain protected, accessible and managed for the benefit of everyone, not just a few.”

Lee indicated on his video that the proposal reflects a partnership between Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Eric Scott Turner.

Burgum said on the video, “This partnership will identify underutilized federal lands suitable for residential development and streamline the land transfer process.”

Lee noted that the proposal wouldn’t affect lands such as national parks and monuments and wilderness areas. Lands with valid existing rights, such as grazing permits and oil and gas leases, also wouldn’t be sold.

The provision FAQ says there wouldn’t be impacts on hunting and fishing opportunities on federal lands, as 99.25% of BLM and Forest Service lands would be untouched and the measure prioritizes disposal of lands suitable for development.

An analysis released by The Wilderness Society on Friday estimates that about 120 million acres altogether meet the provision’s criteria of being eligible for disposal and available for sale. In Colorado, this includes about 3.22 million acres of Forest Service land and 587,000 acres of BLM land.