FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 22, 2020

MCV Hails House Passage of Great American Outdoors Act

Gianforte’s refusal to cosponsor bipartisan bill ‘suggests politics is more important’

(Bozeman, Mont.) – Montana Conservation Voters released the following statement from Deputy Director Whitney Tawney in response to the U.S. House of Representatives’s passage of the Great American Outdoors Act–bipartisan legislation that will fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund in perpetuity, and will address the National Park Service’s maintenance backlog:

 “The only step left for full and permanent funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund is a single signature by President Trump, and we hope he signs it ASAP,” Tawney said. “We’re grateful Montana’s congressional delegation supported this landmark bill, but we wish Congressman Gianforte would have taken a more proactive leadership role by putting his name on it. His refusal to cosponsor this bipartisan legislation suggests politics is more important to Congressman Gianforte than fighting for our public lands.”

Montana’s sole member of Congress, Representative Greg Gianforte, today supported the legislation but has avoided questions about why he refused to cosponsor the House version of the popular, bipartisan legislation.

The U.S. Senate passed the legislation on June 17. Both of Montana’s U.S. Senators, Jon Tester and Steve Daines, supported the bill.

“We hope this is the beginning of a real trend, not a one-off election year lift,” Tawney said then of Daines’s support for the Great American Outdoors Act.

Montana Conservation Voters will discuss the Great American Outdoors Act on this week’s episode of MCVcast. MCV will release the episode on Friday morning. All episodes are available online at mtvoters.org/podcast.

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