Category: News Article

The Senate will take the decisive vote around noon today on legislation that would authorize millions of dollars for maintaining public lands around the country. There is very little suspense about whether S. 3422 will pass. The “Great American Outdoors Act” would permanently and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and address a multibillion-dollar backlog of deferred maintenance projects across national parks and federally owned land. It is being touted as the most consequential conservation measure to be considered by Congress in decades and will be carried across the Senate finish line with bipartisan support. But wanting to take nothing

MISSOULA — There was cause for celebration on Wednesday, but also a little bit of surprise because of our political divisions, as the Senate passes the Great American Outdoors Act. It’s a sweeping piece of legislation designed to provide permanent funding to the 55-year old Land and Water Conservation Act (LWCF). Montana’s senators had been expressing confidence the Great American Outdoors Act would finally succeed where other efforts had failed, permanently allocating dollars for the LWCF, the primary tool for conservation and public lands access. When the votes were counted early Wednesday, the idea passed with a huge majority across

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed a landmark bill to permanently fund public lands management programs and maintenance in national parks. Montana’s U.S. senators, Republican Steve Daines and Democrat Jon Tester, both voted in support of The Great American Outdoors Act. The Act received broad bipartisan support passing with a 73-25 vote. If approved by Congress and signed by president Donald Trump, the act promises $900 million annually for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The LWCF uses offshore oil and gas lease royalties to pay for playgrounds, parks and other local projects. The Act also sets aside $9.5 billion

Montana Senator Steve Daines met with the media on Wednesday morning to celebrate the Senate’s passage of the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act. “This has been a great day in the U.S. Senate,” said Daines. “We made history today in the United States Senate by passing the Great American Outdoors Act. We had a strong bipartisan vote or 73 to 25 because this is a bipartisan bill that protects a critical conservation program, the Land and Water Conservation Program.” Daines described just one aspect of the bill that will help rebuild our national parks. “The bill addresses our maintenance backlog that

Montana’s congressional delegation and conservation groups applauded Thursday’s passage of the Great American Outdoors Act by the U.S. Senate. The Senate voted 73-25 to pass the bill that fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually and removes it from the annual appropriation process. The bill also generates roughly $9.5 billion to finance backlogged maintenance on federal lands, including more than $6 billion toward the more than $12 billion backlog at national parks. Democrat Sen. Jon Tester and Republican Sen. Steve Daines co-sponsored the legislation, with Daines credited with recent negotiations with President Donald Trump and

HAVRE — If ever there was a summer when hundreds of Montana’s Hi-Line farmers could use rain, it’s this one. An $8 million infrastructure failure on the St. Mary Canal last month will restrict approximately 800 irrigators who work about 150,000 acres from Havre to Glasgow to about half the water they normally use during a season.  The St. Mary Canal was built approximately 100 years ago to feed water from lakes Sherburne and St. Mary into the Milk River and make it possible for ag producers in arid central and eastern Montana to pull water and make a living.

Today is a great day to be an American entrepreneur. It might seem counterintuitive, with much of the country slowly re-emerging from months of physical and economic lockdown, businesses shuttered across the U.S. and some industries poised to never fully recover. At the same time, the attention of policymakers, advocates and lenders has never been more focused on small business owners. Entrepreneurs should make the most of this moment—not only for their own advancement, but to advance our nation as a whole. Whatever our economic recovery looks like, small businesses will lead the way. For that, we not only need

Montana’s U.S. senators issued press releases Monday announcing they are joining a bipartisan group of senators calling for the expansion of telehealth services included in response to the COVID-19 pandemic be made permanent. Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., both joined in sending a letter to Senate leadership calling for making the expansion permanent. The releases said the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security — CARES — Act contained provisions to expand telehealth across the country to help patients, especially veterans and people living in rural areas, access telehealth services. Provisions of CONNECT for Health Act co-sponsored by Tester and

WASHINGTON — At a time of national crises, the Senate has been able to come together on a topic both parties celebrate: the great outdoors. While the country copes with the coronavirus, an economic downturn and a reckoning over racism, lawmakers have reached bipartisan agreement on an election-year deal to double spending on a popular conservation program and devote nearly $2 billion a year to improve and maintain national parks. If approved by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, the Great American Outdoors Act would be the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century. The bill,

The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, came to Missoula on Friday to issue a wide-ranging memorandum that directs the Forest Service to “expedite environmental reviews to support active management” and “increase the productivity of national forests and grasslands.” Perdue was joined by Montana Republican gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte and a host of other officials and representatives from various agencies and industries, including the Montana Stockgrowers Association and a timber company. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, sent a statement of support from Washington, D.C. as well. The theme of the day was “cutting red tape” and “reducing