Well, it looks like that’s pretty much it for Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” this year.

The Associated Press has the story . . .

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s bill to increase both logging and wilderness areas appears to be dead this Congress after the Senate abandoned a huge catchall spending measure that included it.

Tester’s bill was added to the legislation Tuesday, but Democrats controlling the Senate abandoned the spending measure late Thursday after an outcry from conservatives who complained it was stuffed with more than $8 billion in pet projects known as earmarks.

Read the full article . . .

As mentioned yesterday, Sen. Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” has been rolled into the massive, end-of-year, Senate omnibus appropriations bill. There have been some, fairly minor, revisions to the act– nothing substantive. Neither the act’s supporters or opponents seem willing to predict its chances for passage.

• Today’s Missoulian has an expanded article on the FJRA, including a discussion of the most recent changes.
• Sen. Tester’s web site also has a page devoted to the act’s current status, as well as links to the actual text and associated maps.

Sen. Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” has been stubbed onto one of those end-of-year Senate appropriations bills. The biggest change from the original proposal appears to be the longer and more obscure title. It is now the “Forest Jobs and Restoration Pilot Initiative.” Today’s Missoulian has the story . . .

A revised version of Sen. Jon Tester’s Montana logging and wilderness initiative has been included in a last-minute omnibus appropriations bill before the U.S. Senate.

Tester spokesman Aaron Murphy said on Tuesday the renamed “Forest Jobs and Restoration Pilot Initiative” is essentially the original version of a bill Tester submitted last year as the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.

Read the full article . . .