Well, Harry Reid's Family was mixed up in the Bundy deal so badly that the Feds had to back off just to cover their @sses.
But in Bundy's case, I dunno . . Article 17, Section 8 of the Constitution sez the Feds can't own all that land . . it's supposed to be State property and Utah went to court several years back, during the Clinton Administration to keep the feds from allowing drilling or mining in the Southern part of Utah that's particularly scenic . . Utah won . . but there's never been any backwash from that, and the Constitutional reference above was the basis for that court decision . .