Sen. Ruben Gallego Endorses Trump Administration Plan To Tackle The Housing Crisis Using Federal Lands

Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego endorsed the Trump administration’s initiative to use federal lands to address the housing crisis.

Gallego, a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, sent a letter to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — the two men who created the administration’s Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing— applauding the initiative to tackle the crisis. Approximately 38% of Arizona’s land is federally owned, making it a potential hotspot for the task force.

“I applaud the formation of such a Task Force to utilize federal land as a partial solution to addressing the nation’s housing supply crisis,” Gallego wrote in the letter. “As the Task Force develops its initiatives and recommendations, I encourage a balanced approach to land development that prioritizes environmental stewardship, respects tribal sovereignty, and involves meaningful engagement with local, state, and tribal communities to ensure housing developments meet their specific needs.”

Gallego’s letter also requested further details on the task force. The senator posed questions regarding transparency of operations, methodology of federal land inventory, coordination between the task force, the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as protocols surrounding private developers and tribal communities.

Dan Kish, who worked on the House Natural Resources Committee overseeing the Department of Interior (DOI), spoke with the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation in March, using his background to answer questions similar to Gallego’s.