Bill to protect school hunting and archery programs gets bipartisan support

Press release

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s Defending Hunters Education Act, legislation that would force the Biden Administration to reverse course on their decision to prohibit the use of federal funds for school archery and hunting education classes, is gaining significant bipartisan momentum with Republican and Democratic Senators signing on as bipartisan co-sponsors of the bill.

U.S. Senators Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Bob Casey, D-Pa., have announced they are co-sponsoring Tester’s bipartisan bill.

“Hunting and shooting sports are part of our Montana DNA – I like to say that I have more guns than I need, but fewer guns than I want,” said Tester, a Democrat from Montana. “These shooting sports and hunter safety classes teach our students safety and personal responsibility and benefit countless Montana students every year. That’s why I’m proud to team up with Republicans and Democrats to stand tough against this Washington, D.C., rule that doesn’t work for Montana, and I’ll keeping pushing to get our bipartisan bill across the finish line.”

Tester’s bill is the only bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate that seeks to address the Biden Administration’s decision to strip funding from these longstanding safety classes. His bipartisan legislation would require the Department of Education to restore school districts’ ability to use federal resources for school archery, gun safety, and hunter education programs.

As part of his longstanding efforts to protect Montanans’ Second Amendment rights, Tester last month expressed his immediate concerns in a letter to the Secretary of Education after learning the Department interpreted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) in a way that would block federal funding from being used for these long-standing programs.

As a gun-owner and supporter of the Second Amendment, Tester has repeatedly opposed banning assault weapons and said he will always work to protect the rights of law-abiding Montana gun owners.