from Montana Conservation Voters –
One of the First Zinke, Rosendale Votes Threatens Our Public Lands
MCV Calls Foul On Zinke and Rosendale’s Misplaced Priorities that Threaten
Montana’s Way of Life
(BOZEMAN, Mont.) – Montana Conservation Voters is sounding the alarm that
Montana’s newly sworn-in Congressmen have used their first votes in office
<https://clerk.house.gov/Votes> to make it easier to give away public lands.
Tucked into Monday’s rules package as part of U.S. House proceedings was a
new rule that waives the requirement for the Congressional Budget Office to
calculate taxpayers’ costs for any legislation that would remove federal
management of our public lands.
“We are outraged that Congressman Zinke and Congressman Rosendale would use
their first votes in office to make it easier to give our treasured public
lands away,” said Whitney Tawney, Executive Director of Montana
Conservation Voters. “This action is clearly not in line with the 85
percent of Montanans who value our public lands for the positive impacts
they have on our quality of life in Big Sky Country. This new rule was
slipped in with little public awareness and Montanans deserve leaders in
Congress who will stand up to the private interests working to sell-off our
public lands.”
Before Monday’s U.S. House rules package vote, supported by both Rep. Ryan
Zinke and Rep. Matt Rosendale, the Congressional Budget Office was required
to calculate how any legislation that impacts transferring federal public
lands would cost taxpayers. The new rule removes this requirement making it
much easier to cede public lands while also making the impacts less
transparent to taxpayers.
A recent University of Montana-Crown of the Continent
<https://crown-yellowstone.umt.edu/voter-surveys/2022/2022-u-of-montana-statewide-analysis-1.pdf>
poll showed nearly all Montanans have visited federal public lands in the
last year, and 85% believe public lands are good for Montana’s economy and
way of life.
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Montana Conservation Voters <http://mtvoters.org> is a statewide
non-partisan membership organization dedicated to fighting for Montana’s
air, water, open spaces, wildlife and public health. MCV provides voter
participation services to tens of thousands of Montanans. Visit mtvoters.org
for more details.
