Tester joins Senate Outdoor Recreation Caucus

Senator: ‘Montana’s outdoor places are unrivaled’

(U.S. SENATE) – As spring welcomes anglers and hikers to Montana’s rivers and mountains, Senator Jon Tester is joining the Senate Outdoor Recreation Caucus to continue to show his support for the state’s great outdoors.

Tester is joining the bipartisan group of senators to promote Montana’s role as an outdoor leader. Montana’s outdoor economy generates $6 billion and creates and supports more than 60,000 jobs every year.

“Montana’s outdoor places are unrivaled around the world, and that’s why folks stay here to start businesses and raise their families,” Tester said. “Joining this caucus will help me educate Congress and push policies that protect our public lands and create jobs in Montana’s outdoors.”

Tester is also the former chairman, and a current member, of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. His record supporting Montana’s outdoors and public lands includes:

• Leading the charge to secure resources for the Land and Water Conservation Fund to increase access to public lands for hunting
• Pushing his Making Public Lands Public Act that would direct the U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to spend at least 1.5 percent of LWCF resources on projects like easements and road maintenance
• Supporting the SPORT Act that would increase public land access for hunters and anglers, preserve treasured places to hunt and fish and strengthen states’ roles in protecting wildlife.

Additionally, Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, which mandates logging while setting aside some of Montana’s most treasured lands, passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee with bipartisan support and now awaits a vote by the full Senate.