In a new video sent today to Montana constituents, Senator Steve Daines takes credit for being a “champion for permanent, full funding” of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF. We understand why. LWCF is one of the most important and most popular conservation tools we have. But Senator Daines’ record doesn’t match his rhetoric, and it’s important Montana’s reporters and MCV’s members understand the facts.

• CLAIM: “Senator Daines has been a champion for permanent, full funding” of LWCF.
• FACT: Just a few weeks ago, Congress approved only $495 million for Fiscal Year 2020, even though full funding of LWCF is $900 million. That’s why MCV has asked Senator Daines to use his influence, as a member of the party in control of the Senate’s agenda and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to actually secure full funding rather than just voice support for full funding.

• CLAIM: “What [Senator Daines] has been is somebody who listens.”
• FACT: We wish this were true. Senator Daines has not held a single, publicly advised, publicly accessible town hall in Montana in years, instead relying on scripted and pre-screened “teletown hall” conference calls.

• CLAIM: “In terms of full, dedicated, permanent funding… we look forward to the day that gets done and under Senator Daines’ watch, that will get done.”
• FACT: We look forward to that too! But the fact is Senator Daines, despite taking credit for being a “champion” of full LWCF funding, actually asked for less-than-full funding a few months ago. HERE is his letter, sent to the Appropriations Committee on May 16, asking for only $600 million of the $900 million LWCF is supposed to receive from Congress every year. And although Senator Daines is a co-sponsor of S. 1081, a bill to permanently and fully fund LWCF, the bill has yet to reach the Senate floor despite being introduced in April 2019.

Last month, MCV launched a statewide TV ad calling on Senator Daines to put our money where his mouth is because Senator Daines “promised to support Montana’s public lands but then short-changed them by hundreds of millions.” First established by Congress in 1965, LWCF has been funded by offshore oil and gas royalties, not taxpayer dollars, providing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to protect public lands and increase access to outdoor recreation. LWCF has invested nearly $600 million in the Big Sky State. The fund supports Montana’s outdoor recreation economy, which sustains 71,000 Montana jobs and generates more than $7 billion in economic activity in Montana every year.

Click HERE to view this memo as a PDF.