GOP stops Sportsmen's bill on budget violation

by Ramsey Cox

Republicans stopped Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) Sportsmen’s Act dead in its tracks Monday evening.

The Sportsmen’s Act, S. 3525, would have increased access to federal land for hunters and fishermen, while also supporting conservation measures, but Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) raised a budget point of order, saying Tester’s bill violated the Budget Control Act.

Democrats tried to waive the budget point of order, but the motion failed on a 50-44 vote – 60 votes were needed.

The Sportsmen's Act combined more than a dozen bipartisan bills aimed at expanding access to federal land for hunters and fishermen. Sessions, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said he supports most of the Sportsmen’s bill, but said it contains Democratic language that appropriates new money, and urged his colleagues not to support it for that reason.

S. 3525 would have required $14 million in new federal spending, and thus, Sessions said, violated the spending levels set in the Budget Control Act (BCA).

Only two senators didn’t vote with their party. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) voted against the budget waiver, while Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) voted for it.