Margaret Byfield, executive director of American Stewards of Liberty, said on Feb. 27, 2026, that the LASSO Act will deposit ten percent of revenues from multiple-use federal lands into the Social Security Trust Fund to promote productive resource management.
The proposal aims to link citizen benefits with land productivity and extend the solvency of Social Security beyond its projected depletion in 2033. Byfield addressed the issue in her testimony before the House Committee on Natural Resources. According to her submitted statement, "When people’s livelihoods are tied to the productivity of the land, they take better care of the resource... If this generation’s Social Security checks are funded, in part, because we have the ability to cultivate and productively use our abundant natural resources, how we manage these lands for their best and highest use becomes important... America was founded on this core principle: that the people would have the right to own and fully utilize the land... In the same way the LASSO Act ties every citizen’s future Social Security retirement funds to the productivity of our federal lands. It creates an intrinsic motivation for all of us to support actions that foster better stewardship of these lands," according to Byfield's testimony.
The LASSO Act directs ten percent of revenues from covered public lands managed by both the Department of the Interior and Forest Service to be deposited into the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Trust Fund. This provision is intended to help sustain Social Security payments by connecting them directly with income generated from productive uses such as grazing, mining, timber harvesting, energy development, and recreation according to Byfield's testimony.
In regions like Custer County, Idaho—where federal ownership covers 97 percent of land—revenues from natural resource production support essential county services including roads and emergency response. Without such productive uses, local governments face deficits since federal lands are exempt from property taxes. As reported by the Congressional Research Service, counties with high levels of federal ownership rely heavily on commodity revenues.
Federal lands comprise about half of western states' territory and contribute significantly to regional economies through various activities. The Bureau of Land Management reports that activities on these lands generated $245.4 billion in economic output in fiscal year 2024 and supported 884,000 jobs across rural areas according to BLM data. Nationally, oil and gas leasing alone produced $7.517 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2025 while national forests provided clean water for millions and contributed billions more through minerals and energy production as said by U.S. Forest Service figures.
Byfield leads American Stewards of Liberty—a property rights organization founded in 1992—and has advocated for landowners facing federal restrictions after being raised on a Nevada ranch herself according to her organization's website.
