FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2020

MCV’s accountability pays off as full funding for LWCF gains momentum in Senate
Bipartisan legislation follows months of MCV pressure on Montana’s junior senator

(BILLINGS, Mont.) – Montana Conservation Voters released the following statement from Executive Director Aaron Murphy in response to today’s announcement about new U.S. Senate legislation to provide full and permanent funding for the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund:

“Fully funding our public lands is a basic responsibility for all lawmakers who claim to be champions of Montana’s outdoors. Montanans thank Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines for pushing long-awaited legislation to strengthen Montana’s public lands through a fully funded Land and Water Conservation Fund, and we look forward to seeing it signed into law.”

TIMELINE

• On February 10, less than a month ago, President Trump released a Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal requesting only $14.7 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, even though it is supposed to receive $900 million ever year.

• On December 19, 2019,Congress approved a disappointing $495 million for the LWCF for Fiscal Year 2020—approximately half of funding. President Trump approved the funding the following day.

• LWCF received less than full funding after Senator Daines on May 16 of 2019sent a letter to his colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee asking for only $600 million of the $900 million that LWCF is supposed to receive from Congress every year.

For months, MCV has focused on Senator Daines, asking him to use his influence as a member of the party in control of the Senate’s agenda and a member of the Appropriations Committee, to secure full funding  through a series of tactics including a statewide TV ad, website, a private label batch of Montana-sourced spirits, yard signs, newspaper ads, online newspaper homepage takeovers and petitions signed by hundreds of Montanans.

“We’re pleased to see that our accountability worked,” Murphy added. “But it’s unfortunate that for some lawmakers, it takes the threat of a tough election year to finally do something for Montana’s public lands.”

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.

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CONTACT
Whitney Tawney
Montana Conservation Voters
whitney@mtvoters.org
406-254-1593