The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership congratulates all those candidates for office who met with success at the ballot box yesterday. As the TRCP’s namesake famously said, each candidate who puts his or her name on the ballot deserves credit as the “man in the arena.”
“Election Day is a good way to hit the refresh button on the sportsmen’s policy agenda,” said Howard Vincent, president and CEO of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and a TRCP board member. “What got done and what did not get done in the last Congress is history – we now need to move forward aggressively toward advocating on behalf of our conservation priorities and holding Congress accountable.”
The 114th Congress will be seated in January, and priority conservation issues for the sportsmen’s community could figure prominently on the docket. Reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, comprehensive national forest management policy, Magnuson-Stevens marine fisheries legislation, a refurbished Sportsmen’s Act and a Duck Stamp fee increase are a few issues sportsmen will be watching closely.
“America’s 37 million hunters and anglers are just as unwilling as the broader electorate to accept gridlock as the status quo,” said TRCP President and CEO Whit Fosburgh. “Issues like conservation funding, habitat restoration and enhanced public access are fundamentally bipartisan – they must not be derailed by the political bickering that has plagued Washington in recent years.
“With a new Congress, there is naturally some hope that our elected officials can get back to the business of legislating,” stated Fosburgh. “Rest assured that the TRCP will remain on the front lines to make sure that our lawmakers understand what issues are important to sportsmen – and to our nation’s economic security, as well as the citizenry at large.”
Hunting, fishing and conservation of the nation’s natural resources are integral to a robust outdoor recreation economy that, according to a 2012 report by the Outdoor Industry Association, contribute $646 billion in direct consumer spending annually and support more than 6 million jobs.
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Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations
and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions
of hunting and fishing.