Response to Rehberg conference call

(BILLINGS, Mont.) – The Office of Senator Jon Tester tonight released the following statements from Mark Hathaway, a millworker at Sun Mountain Lumber in Deer Lodge, and Kurt Rayson, President of Rayson Logging in Libby, in response to Congressman Rehberg’s conference call:

“I’m a lifelong Republican.  Congressman Rehberg says he listens, but he wasn’t listening when we asked him to support Montana’s wood products industry.  If he’s still calling this a ‘wilderness’ bill, he clearly hasn’t read it and doesn’t understand that it will create much-needed jobs for Montana’s loggers and millworkers.”

–Mark Hathaway, Millworker, Sun Mountain Lumber (Deer Lodge)

“I’m not interested in political stunts and the same old heated rhetoric.  I am interested in keeping my job as a logger.  So is Jon Tester.  Creating jobs is the idea behind his bill, and I thank Jon for it.”

–Kurt Rayson, President, Rayson Logging (Libby/Troy)

The final version of the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, which is—and has been—online at tester.senate.gov/forest, is very similar to the version he introduced a year and a half ago, with some improvements suggested by Montanans.

A complete summary of the jobs bill is online HERE.