Montana Democrat Takes Credit For Saving Hunting Program He Himself Voted To Put In Jeopardy

 A new campaign ad from Democratic Montana Senator Jon Tester celebrates the fact that he helped block the Biden administration’s push to pull funding from school hunting programs. It fails to mention the fact that he voted for the law that put the programs in jeopardy in the first place. 

Tester’s new 2024 ad features a hunter education teacher praising the senator for opposing President Joe Biden’s Department of Education move last summer to block funding for school hunting and archery programs. The move was enabled by the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a measure that Tester supported.

“When I heard the Biden administration was trying to block funding for gun safety and hunter education classes, I knew Jon Tester would do what he always does: give ‘em hell. Jon got his Republican colleagues onboard to stop Biden’s policies and defend our Second Amendment,” the teacher says. 

The BSCA, voted for by Tester, passed 65-33 in June 2022 with opposition all coming from Republicans. The law included an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that bans taxpayer funds from being used on “training in the use of a dangerous weapon.” 

After the Education Department started blocking funding for the programs, GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to dispute his interpretation of the amendment, saying that he was going against congressional intent. 

Congress later passed the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act, which ensured that hunting and fishing classes could not lose their funding that Biden signed in October. The Senate approved the legislation unanimously while the House passed it 424-1. Tester took credit for the legislation despite his role in supporting the initial law that triggered the controversy. 

 

“Tester voted for Biden’s plan to deny Montana schools funding for hunter safety programs, but now that he’s up for re-election, he’s trying to profit on the crisis he helped create and is now actually taking a victory lap that he resolved the very crisis he allowed to happen under his watch,” a press release from 2024 Montana Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy said. 

Tester, who was first elected in 2007, is seen as one of the vulnerable Democratic Senate seats in 2024. The Democrat has attempted to distance himself from Biden, who lost Montana by 16 points in 2020.

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