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Reforms to improve forest management and how firefighting is funded are among the provisions important to Montana included in the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill making its way through Congress, according to Montana lawmakers. A bill protecting public land north of Yellowstone National Park from mining, however, did not make it into the omnibus bill, prompting one of the state’s senators to criticize the other for its failure to be included. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told reporters via telephone Wednesday that he was able to secure forest management and wildfire funding reforms in the bill. One provision reduces red tape and streamlines projects

Montana’s Republican delegation to Congress on Wednesday praised provisions included in the 2018 federal spending bill that address forest management, including a partial overturning of the Cottonwood decision and efforts to streamline timber projects. Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte said the reforms, which will also fund the U.S. Forest Service’s firefighting expenses from a separate account, represent a start in improving the health of the nation’s forests. “What’s been going on has been called fire borrowing,” Gianforte said. “In bad fire years, most of the operating budget for the Forest Service gets consumed with fighting fires. Because we’re opening up

I want to thank Sen. Steve Daines for his support and co-sponsorship of a bill in front of Congress right now to increase access to lower-cost generic prescription drugs. Many Montanans encouraged the senator to take a good look at the merits of Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act. He listened and has joined us in support for this bill, and taking responsible steps to make all aspects of health care more affordable. The way this works is by targeting abusive delay tactics used by mega pharmaceutical companies that keep affordable generic drugs from entering the

Montana’s congressional delegation says reforms to forest management, including an end to “fire borrowing,” will be included in must-pass legislation this week. On a media call Wednesday, Republicans Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte detailed a forest reform package as part of an omnibus bill, which includes funding wildfires similarly to other natural disasters. The reform ends fire borrowing — the practice of using funds from other programs such as trail maintenance to pay for fires that exceed budgets. Under the changes, when fire budgets run dry, agencies may tap into natural disaster funding rather than their own budgets.

Recent attacks towards Senator Daines’ legislation to release certain wilderness study areas demonstrate the fear and deliberate falsehoods that prevent us from moving forward on this important issue. Chris Marchion gave credibility to this theory recently with an editorial that makes false assertions while exuding the type of rhetoric that has unfortunately led many to believe that certain segments of the “conservation” community serve as a mouth piece for other political interests. First, removing a wilderness study area designation from areas not recommended for wilderness does protect the public’s use of public land. The WSA designation carries with it a