To: ALL MEDIA
For immediate release

April 5, 2017

For more information contact:

Mike Bazinet
203-426-1320

NSSF Honors U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski
as 2016 Legislator of the Year

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) accept the 2016 Legislator of the Year awards from NSSF’s Larry Keane.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industries, awarded Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) a 2016 Legislator of the Year Award at the organization’s annual dinner in Washington, D.C., coinciding with the firearms industry’s annual Congressional Fly-In.

“We salute Chairman Murkowski for her outstanding leadership in the U.S. Senate and on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee particularly for her tireless efforts to advance S. 405, the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act and we are honored to present her with the 2016 NSSF’s Legislator of the Year Award,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “This legislation addressed many priorities for American hunters, anglers and recreational shooters and its passage by the Senate represented a significant accomplishment for the sportsmen’s community and for America.”

This historic legislation was the most important package of measures for the benefit of sportsmen in a generation. The legislation contained three of NSSF’s top priorities for the 114th Congress, including Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support, Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities and Making Public Lands Public.

This vital piece of legislation included provisions for state fish and game agencies to exercise more flexibility to use Pittman-Robertson funds to build and maintain badly needed public shooting ranges. It also intended to help facilitate and provide for more access to Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands and waters for hunting, fishing and recreational shooting.

NSSF, along with a number of partner organizations, worked closely with senators to ensure inclusion of these priorities. Senator Murkowski’s steady leadership in shepherding this legislation was crucial in ensuring the Congress kept faith with sportsmen, hunters and recreational target shooters.

That sustained commitment continues. Senator Murkowski, along with a group of bipartisan senators, reintroduced S. 733, the Sportsmen’s Act of 2017, which was approved out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee less than a week after introduction.

“I am truly honored to receive this award from the National Shooting Sports Foundation,” said Senator Murkowski. “Ensuring access to our public lands and keeping them open for hunting, fishing and recreational shooting now and for generations to come is one of my top legislative priorities. With our sportsmen’s bill already passing committee on a bipartisan basis in this new Congress, I am hopeful that 2017 will finally be the year that it is signed into law, to the benefit of Alaskans and millions of sportsmen and women across the country.”

-30-

About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 12,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, visit www.nssf.org.