In The News

U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) joined a bipartisan contingent of his Senate colleagues in providing President Joe Biden with a bipartisan, comprehensive diplomatic strategy on Iran that would garner overwhelming support in Congress.

“Democrats and Republicans may have tactical differences,” Sen. Young and his colleagues wrote in a March 25 letter sent to the president, “but we are united on preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon and addressing the wide range of illicit Iranian behavior.”

Among the more than 40 lawmakers joining Sen. Young in signing the letter were U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Susan Collins (R-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Hoeven (R-ND), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Steve Daines (R-MT), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Richard Burr (R-NC), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Bob Menendez (D-NJ).

“We write to reaffirm the long-held view of Congress and presidents from both parties that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a grave threat to U.S. national security interests and our allies and partners,” wrote Sen. Young and the lawmakers. “We must confront the reality that Iran has accelerated its nuclear activity in alarming ways including increasing its centrifuge research and production and enriching uranium up to 20 percent.”

The senators told President Biden they agree that Iran continues to pose a threat to U.S. and international security through exporting arms, including highly accurate missiles, supporting Shia militias that target U.S. service members, and supporting terrorist organizations and other malign actors throughout the region, according to their letter. 

“We also remain concerned about Iran’s continued human rights abuses of its own citizens and the increasing size and capabilities of its ballistic and cruise missile programs,” they wrote. 

Sen. Young and his colleagues suggested that President Biden “use the full force of our diplomatic and economic tools in concert with our allies on the United Nations Security Council and in the region to reach an agreement that prevents Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons and meaningfully constrains its destabilizing activity throughout the Middle East and its ballistic missile program.”

They also suggested that it is critical for the president to consult with the nation’s European allies, Israel, and Gulf security partners on a path forward with Iran, as well as to prioritize the release of all American citizens unjustly detained in Iran, their letter states.

Western Republican senators have reinforced a congressional effort to remove Endangered Species Act protections from Yellowstone-area grizzly bears.

Echoing an earlier House effort, five GOP lawmakers last Thursday introduced the Senate version of what they call the “Grizzly Bear State Management Act.”

The bill would remove grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from the ESA list, shift their management to the states and block judicial review of the move.

“By all scientific measures, the grizzly bears of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are fully recovered,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. “Reproductive numbers are stable, and the population is at or near its max capacity for the habitat.”

Lummis joined Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Mike Crapo and James Risch of Idaho, and Steve Daines of Montana in introducing the bill. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming has introduced a companion measure in the House (E&E Daily, March 2).

There are about 1,800 grizzly bears in the Lower 48, including roughly 700 in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which includes parts of northwest Wyoming, southwest Montana and eastern Idaho.

The Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007 deemed the Greater Yellowstone grizzly as a distinct population segment and delisted it. Following a legal challenge, FWS in 2017 again delisted the Yellowstone population after concluding its numbers had rebounded.

In 2018, Montana-based U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ruled that FWS had exceeded its authority and had failed to consider how reduced protections in the Yellowstone region would affect other grizzly populations.

“It’s disturbing to see Western lawmakers try to blatantly sidestep the science showing that grizzly bears should remain federal protected under the Endangered Species Act,” Andrea Zaccardi, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said yesterday. “We’re hopeful this bill dies a quick death in Congress.”

After his trip back to Washington, D.C. from the southern border, Montana Senator Steve Daines called in to the KGVO Montana Morning News show and told listeners how representatives from the Biden administration attempted to limit the 18 U.S. Senators from taking photos or videos on the southern border.

“President Biden and vice president Kamala Harris need to allow the media access to what’s happening on the southern border,” said Daines. “It’s a media blackout right now, Peter, I couldn’t believe it. We were walking around, 18 Republican U.S. Senators. We had our smart-phones in our hands, and we were taking videos and pictures and there was a Biden handler trying to stop us; trying to get in the way. Telling us to delete the pictures and delete the videos. Peter, I felt like I was on a trip to China or to Russia.”

Daines said he has never seen anything like how he and the other Senators were treated by the Biden administration representatives.

“This is the United States of America,” he said. “We have federal facilities and we have every right as Senators here to show the American people what’s going on the southern border, and she was chasing us. “Thankfully we got a lot of video, we got a lot of pictures, and we’re making sure those are being distributed so that the American people can see what’s really going on.”

Daines described what he witnessed when illegals crossed the border into the U.S.

“When an illegal immigrant comes to our southern border and crosses, they just throw their arms up in the air,” he said. They don’t run away from border guards; in fact, they want to be captured because they then will be processed and told to come back for an asylum hearing. Well, guess what? There’s 1.2 million illegals right now waiting for that hearing; their backlog is one to two years and they never come back. That’s called ‘catch and release’.”

Daines said with the cartels mocking the Senators with megaphones across the Rio Grande, he knows the sheer volume of methamphetamine and other illegal drugs are making their way to Montana.

“They are, of course, flooding the southern border with Mexican methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl, and you know that’s coming right here in a Montana effect as I mentioned on that call last week the Cascade County Jail had seven Mexican cartel members held there for a period of time just recently, so this problem is right here in Montana.”

Also appearing on KGVO on Monday was Montana Attorney general Austin Knudsen who echoed Senator Daines’ appeal to shut down the flow of illegal immigrants and illegal drugs into the United States.

Senator Cynthia Lummis has introduced the Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2021 alongside Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, Senators Mike Crapo and James Risch of Idaho and Senator Steve Daines of Montana. This bill would remove grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from the Endangered Species List and shift management of the grizzlies to wildlife scientists in the states.

In 1975, there were 136 grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In 2019, there were 728 bears, evidence of an effective conservation effort. At this point, grizzly numbers have been in the 700s for a number of years.

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team’s analysis suggests that the park is at or near its ecological carrying capacity for grizzly bears. In making the bill’s introduction, Lummis remarked, “It’s time to remove the grizzlies in this area from the Endangered Species List and allow wildlife scientists in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho to manage the populations according to science.” The companion version of this legislation was previously introduced in the House by Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Cannabis stocks may not rise materially from here unless there are more regulatory rollbacks. But one bill may be coming soon. The SAFE Banking Act, introduced in the House of Representatives in 2019, is back under consideration. The difference between now and then is that a Democratic Senate is also on board. The Senate bill also has bipartisan support, as it’s co-sponsored by Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley and Montana Republican Steve Daines.

The SAFE Act would allow national banks to do business with state-legal cannabis companies without fear of prosecution. That would help lower both operational costs and the costs of capital for these U.S. cannabis companies.

In addition, New York legislators recently cut a deal on legalizing adult-use cannabis in the state — a place where Green Thumb and Cresco already operate medical dispensaries. Though adult-use operations may be far off, as complex rules on distribution, social equity, licenses, and tax revenue are worked out, it’s yet another instance of more state-level momentum gathering for cannabis. And New York is a very populous state at that. 

The Biden administration confirmed their massive $3 trillion infrastructure bill will be divided into two parts. In an interview Sunday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki explained the first bill would likely address roads, bridges and rural broadband access while the second would cover health and childcare.

The decision to divide the proposal was an apparent move to get Republicans on board with at least the first part of the bill as the second could possibly receive pushback from the GOP. Senate Republicans had already been uneasy about the overall price tag as tax hikes and national debt were key factors amid the legislation.

“It’s a spending problem there and we pushed nearly $6 trillion of COVID-related spending in the last 12 months, now add another what? $3 trillion or more?” questioned Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.). “They’re talking about massive spending increases, high tax increases. This is a recipe that’s going to take us to a bad place in our economy. So, this is the fight right now. It’s 50/50 Senate right now [with] narrow margins in the House. This will be an interesting battle, but I can’t support these massive spending increases and…massive tax increases as well.”

On Monday, the press secretary said Joe Biden would unveil his infrastructure plan, including the details on how to pay for it, on Wednesday. Along with Republican opposition, Senate Democrats also must contend with the moderates in their own party who hold sway over the divided upper chamber.

On Fox Across America with Jimmy Failla, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) describes his interactions with members of drug cartels and those illegally crossing the border during a visit with Ted Cruz and other Republican members of the Senate to the banks of the Rio Grande.

“We get to the border on the Rio Grande banks there, we’re looking across the river and it’s maybe one hundred yards, seventy five yards wide. It was dark. We have flashlights with us and we could hear cartel members on the other side yelling back at us. They were taunting us. Now, they didn’t realize that there were eighteen Republican senators there. They just thought it was probably Border Patrol because they could hear the English, because it projects pretty well across open water like that. And they were yelling things that were so vile that the Border Patrol translated, because they all speak Spanish, our wonderful men and women in Border Patrol, trying to do their jobs. We said, what are they saying? They said, well, they’re taunting us right now. So what are they also saying? So it’s so vile, we don’t even want to repeat it.”

“There’s human trafficking, there’s drugs, and the cartels are making out and they’re bringing them across the border. There are COVID superspreader events going on down there. And there’s a reason why we had a Biden handler. There is this woman who came up and confronted us who are trying to take pictures, take videos of what’s going on. And you might have seen there’s a video that’s gone viral now of Ted Cruz. And she wanted to stop it, she said you need to delete these videos, you can make these videos. Wait a minute, the American people know what’s going on down here. It reminded me of being on a trip if you go to China, to Russia, where you have government handlers that restrict what you can see and can’t see, what you can film when you can’t film, that’s what it felt like down the border here on Friday.”

The Biden administration’s proposal to raise taxes and pass massive spending packages are no means to rebuild the nation’s economy, as tax cuts help the U.S. stay globally competitive, Sen. Steve Daines said Monday.

“(Tax cuts) create incentives to reinvest capital, grow businesses, create jobs, increase wages,” the Montana Republican said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“The bottom line, Republicans want to drive more tax cuts. Workers win with that.”

Data shows that wages went up as a result of the tax cuts former President Donald Trump pushed into place in 2019, Daines said, resulting in a 6.8% growth in median household income.

“That was the largest one-year growth in the history of the country,” said Daines. “Notice, inversions stopped when we cut corporate rates.”

He said a 28 percent corporate tax rate increase would “raise the U.S. federal combined rate by 32%.”

“It’s about global competitiveness,” said Daines. “If we want to create jobs here in our country, we got to have competitive tax rates going from 21% to 28%. Remember, we were at 35%. That puts us at the highest (rate). That’s not the right thing to do.”

Democrats are not just looking at raising corporate tax rates, but state taxes and more as well, meaning that tax increases are being considered across the board.

“We’ve pushed nearly $6 trillion of COVID-related spending in the last 12 months,” he said. “Add another what, $3 trillion or more…this is a recipe that’s going to take us to a bad place in our economy.”

And with an evenly divided Senate and narrow margins in the House, the push for more spending and taxes “will be an interesting battle, but I can’t support these massive spending increases, and what looks to be perhaps massive tax increases as well,” said Daines.

Biden will release details on his infrastructure plans during a speech on Wednesday in Pittsburgh. The issue has drawn some GOP support, but, they, like Daines, are concerned about another costly package coming on the heels of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan.

Democrats, though, want a broad package that includes policy changes on immigration, green energy, and more, leading their GOP counterparts to accuse them of pushing through a “Trojan horse” filled with progressive agenda items.

A board infrastructure bill may also have difficulty passing the Senate without bipartisan support, even with Vice President Kamala Harris casting a tiebreaking vote, because Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has said he will block an infrastructure bill that does not include input and support from Republicans.

President Joe Biden has backed hiking the corporate rate to 28%, rather than returning it to 35% as some progressive politicians such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would prefer. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) joined “Squawk Box” on Monday to discuss why he opposes President Biden’s policy proposal.