February 10, 2017
A New Voice for Montana Sportsmen and Women
MISSOULA, Mont.—The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation joined forces with the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation and leaders in the Montana legislature to re-create the Montana Sportsmen’s Caucus, which was disbanded a decade ago.
“Montana was previously one of only three remaining states in the nation that did not offer the outdoor community more of a united political voice,” said Kirk Murphy, RMEF vice president of Operations. “We appreciate Montana lawmakers and our fellow non-profit wildlife groups for uniting in such an effort.”
The Montana Sportsmen’s Caucus aims to bring lawmakers together in a bipartisan manner to learn more about issues important to sportsmen and women, wildlife and Montana’s outdoor way of life.
The group held its first meeting earlier this week at the state capitol in Helena with approximately 60 legislators in attendance. It adopted bylaws and elected Senators Jill Cohenour (D-E. Helena) and Jedediah Hinkle (R-Belgrade) as co-chairs from the Senate and Representatives Matt Regier (R-Kalispell) and Zach Brown (D-Bozeman) as co-chairs from the House. Caucus members also elected Rep. Regier as presiding officer.
Legislators in attendance talked about a variety of bills they intend to bring to the caucus for consideration including public access proposals, accessing federal funds to combat noxious weeds, combatting aquatic invasive species and a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of Montanans to hunt, fish and trap.