Why It Matters: Throughout many Midwestern states, much of the low-hanging fruit has already been enacted for the benefit of sportsmen and women. However, these successes do not mean that the sporting-conservation community should rest on our laurels, and we must remain vigilant to emergent threats to our time-honored outdoor traditions. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) remains actively engaged with the highly successful Missouri Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus and in-state partners to ensure that our outdoor heritage remains protected from threats that could undermine opportunities for sportsmen and women.
Highlights
- The 2024 regular session of the Missouri Legislature adjourned last week, completing one of the quietest sessions for sportsmen and women in recent memory.
- With much of the low-hanging fruit already adopted by the legislature, coupled with the constitutional authority vested in the Missouri Conservation Commission, most efforts in Missouri involve playing defense against threat to our outdoor heritage.
- Fortunately, the continued strength and engagement of the Missouri Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, thanks largely to its bipartisan leadership, has successfully mitigated the threats that are becoming increasingly common in neighboring states throughout the region.
Knowledge is power. For sportsmen and women who are engaged in the political processes across the nation, knowledge often manifests in the form of understanding the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and the American System of Conservation Funding. Through these two enormous concepts, the role of sportsmen and women, and the importance of our shared outdoor heritage, truly shines. Recently, no state in the Midwest has demonstrated the possession of this knowledge better than the Show-Me State. Thanks largely to the engagement of both the leaders and members of the Missouri Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and their Commission, and key in-state partners, Missouri’s most recent legislative session serves as a demonstration that knowledge surrounding conservation and the role of sportsmen and women is winning the day.
After adjourning Sine Die last week, the Missouri Legislature officially turned the page on what has been among the quietest legislative sessions in recent memory. For a state constantly facing threats to the dedicated conservation sales tax, complaints about the efforts of the MDC, and other challenges that would impact sportsmen and women, the 2024 session saw nearly zero truly serious threats to conservation or opportunities for our community. Why was this the case?
First, the situation in Missouri demonstrates the value that an active, engaged Sportsmen’s Caucus can bring to the conversation. Thanks to the relationships that the Caucus, led by bipartisan legislators that are able to work collectively on behalf of sportsmen and women, relationships between elected officials and members of the sporting-conservation community have arguably never been stronger. This can be seen both during the Caucus’ events which feature great conversations about our shared outdoor passions, as well as through the almost complete lack of anti-sportsmen or anti-conservation legislation that made any significant progress this session.
As we begin to look towards 2025, CSF is proud of the work accomplished in Missouri and looks forward to continuing our work there and with all caucuses throughout the National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses (NASC) network.
