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Despite the tremendous bipartisan popularity of outdoor recreation, access, and conservation in Montana, Congressman Matt Rosendale has introduced bills that propose to defund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which uses royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling to pay for conservation and recreation projects around the country, including in Montana.
These projects can include improving access to public lands and to hunting and fishing opportunities which are deeply important to Montana voters. Expanding access can mean, for example, acquiring a site to develop a fishing access point. According to Mountain Mamas executive director Becky Edwards, 75 percent of the state's river access sites were acquired using LWCF funds that Rosendale proposes to eliminate.
After being underfunded for several years, LWCF was permanently fully funded in 2020 through a bill that all members of Montana's bipartisan Congressional delegation voted for, President Donald Trump signed into law, and 75 percent of Montana voters support. Rosendale himself praised the bill at the time in a campaign press release and states his support for "protecting and expanding access to our public lands" on his campaign website.
"It’s hard to imagine four bills more out of touch with the people of Montana than the ones Rosendale just introduced," said Montana Conservation Voters communications director Anthony Licata.
Hard, but not impossible—last year, Rosendale signed on as a co-sponsor of an unlikely-to-pass bill that would have removed an excise tax on guns and ammunition. Better known as the Pittman-Robertson Act, this program directs those tax revenues to state fish and wildlife agencies and is popular among hunters in Montana and across the West. As Dave Chadwick, former executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation, said, "We have a member of Congress who either wants to defund conservation or is not serious about passing legislation, and both are problematic."
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These four bills suggest that Rep. Rosendale does not appreciate the paramount role that public lands play throughout Montana and in the lives of his constituents.”
