Daines – Tester Help the Senate Authorize Full Funding for LWCF
Montana Senator Steve Daines joined a bipartisan group of senators in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday as they voted to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million per year.
Daines stood next to Colorado Senator Corey Gardner to make the announcement.
“I, too, like Corey Gardner, want to thank the senators here,” said Daines. “I want to thank my colleague from Montana, Senator Jon Tester who has been a relentless supporter of the full and mandatory funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, as well as the Restore our National Parks Act. Joe Manchin has been right there as well as a team. That’s one of the best parts of this job is seeing Republicans and Democrats come together to actually get an outcome. We’re not talking about more press releases, we’re talking about actually getting something signed into law.”
Daines explained how they were able to get the help of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“We’re here first of all because of a great meeting we had with Leader McConnell,” he said. “We asked, ‘Leader McConnell, would you please put this on the floor of the United States Senate for an up or down vote’? He said, ‘I’ll only do this if the President will agree to sign it’. So, we had the meeting last week. Corey and I went down with the leader and sat across from the President at the White House and said on behalf of all our colleagues here who want to see this done, will you sign it? It was a great moment in that he committed to doing it.”
Daines said the passage of full and permanent funding for the LWCF wasa shining moment of cooperation in Washington, D.C.
“As a city that’s very polarized, once again it’s taken public lands to bring a divided government together,” he said. “You can see it by who’s standing up here today. This is about legacy, so that when you hang up your spurs someday and say goodbye to this place then you think about what you leave behind. As a father of four children and the grandfather of one, we’re thankful to be able to leave this behind for our kids and our grandkids.”
Daines said he has been working on full funding for the LWCF since he first became a member of the U.S. Senate.