Jon Tester: “I want to thank the ranking member of the Budget Committee for his comments. Look, folks, this is a bill about habitat.…”

“I want to thank the ranking member of the Budget Committee for his comments. Look, folks, this is a bill about habitat. It is a bill about access. It is a bill about opportunity for people who enjoy our outdoors in this country. The outdoor economy is some $600 billion a year. I have heard many times spoken on the Senate floor, if we are going to get the deficit and the debt under control, we have to grow our economy. This is about growing our economy. How? By allowing hunters, fishermen, outdoor activists the opportunity to go out and utilize the great outdoors this country has to offer in Montana and throughout this country. We are losing habitat every day. We have lost access to habitat for hunting and fishing and hiking. This bill will fix that. I will go back to the point Senator Sessions made. When I go back home, folks talk to me about the debt. They talk to me about the deficit. They ask what we can do to fix it. Quite frankly, this is one of those things we can do to fix it. By increasing opportunities for our outdoorsmen and women in this country, we have the opportunity to increase our economy in a very positive way. Like I said, when we talk about the duck stamps, those dollars go in to be used for promoting opportunities in duck hunting. Those moneys will not be going into funding the war in Afghanistan. The money coming in basically goes out for a specific purpose. By the way, the folks who utilize the duck stamp want this money bumped up.…”