Category: News Article

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines on Thursday introduced legislation to protect citizens’ public land access and use in Montana following requests from the Montana State Legislature and local communities. The Protect Public Use of Public Lands Act would release 449,500 acres of the total more than 1 million acres in Montana’s Wilderness Study Areas (WSA), as the U.S. Forest Service has recommended. The land would be available for boosting Montana’s $6 billion outdoor economy and its agriculture economy, according Daines’ office. “As a fifth-generation Montanan and an avid outdoorsman, I know how important public use of our public lands is to

In 1977, President Carter signed a law that required the Forest Service to study 973,000 acres in Montana to determine if they were suitable for wilderness. The findings were to be reported in five years and Congress was to take action afterward. The Forest Service completed the study and determined that several of the study areas in Montana were not suitable for wilderness in its final plan. Thirty-five years later – we’re still waiting for D.C. to get its job done and release the study areas. I’ve introduced the Protect Public Use of Public Lands Act, which will take action

Five wilderness study areas left in legislative limbo for 35 years would be released to multiple use planning under a proposed bill by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana. The 449,500 acres of wild country include the Blue Joint and Sapphire WSAs south and east of Hamilton, the Big Snowies WSA near Lewistown, the Middle Fork Judith WSA south of Stanford and the West Pioneer WSA east of Wisdom. “These lands were to be studied for five years and the findings reported to the president,” Daines said in a conference call to reporters on Thursday. “We are now 35 years past due

WASHINGTON—The National Association of State Foresters (NASF) today presented Senator Steve Daines of Montana with the 2017 Bernard L. Orell Award.  The award is presented periodically to a member of Congress who has made a significant contribution to state and private forestry.  More than 60 percent of forests in the United States are private and state owned forests and nearly 90 percent of the nation’s wood supply comes from these forestlands. Senator Daines has been a champion of active forest management, for example methods that include thinning the nation’s forests in order to make them more resilient to insects, disease,

Public lands and protections remain a hot topic in Washington D.C. Thursday as Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., introduced legislation to remove 449,500 acres in Montana’s Wilderness Study Areas. Daines describes the “Protect Public Use of Public Lands Act” as an effort to follow bottom-up requests from the state legislature and local communities.   “As a fifth-generation Montanan and an avid outdoorsman, I know how important public use of our public lands is to Montanans,” Daines said in a statement. “Forty years of D.C. paralysis has frozen our access and use of public lands. It’s time to keep public lands in public hands.”  The WSAs included

As night fell on the nation’s Capitol, a nearly 80-foot-tall Engelmann spruce picked from Montana’s Kootenai National Forest and adorned with 3,500 hand-made ornaments stole the spotlight from the Washington Monument. Ridley Brandmayr, an 11-year-old from Bozeman chosen by Montana’s senior Sen. Jon Tester to light the tree, looked on in anticipation as the state’s delegation and other speakers kicked off the event. Brandmayr, wearing a black suit and white pressed buttoned-down shirt, said he was a little nervous “because I was in front of America.” The sixth grader from Sacajewa Middle School said his social studies instructor told him

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., urged the Environmental Protection Agency’s top administrator Scott Pruitt to consider the Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area in Pruitt’s “Top 10” list in a letter sent earlier this week. An EPA report, released in late July, laid out recommendations for how Pruitt could speed up the Superfund process. Creating a “Top 10” list of Superfund sites that Pruitt would personally oversee was one of the suggestions. There is no time frame for how quickly Pruitt will name his Top 10, EPA spokesperson Enesta Jones said in a written statement from the Washington, D.C. office Wednesday. Daines

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines recognized Kalispell resident Ted Koenig as the Montanan of the Week for his role in humanitarian relief efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands following the destruction of hurricanes Maria and Irma. Daines’ statement of recognition was entered into the official Congressional Record Dec. 1, and highlighted Koenig’s selfless contributions in the U.S. territory. “Helping others in need is common in Big Sky Country and Ted’s journey to St. Thomas is another example of this ethic in action,” Daines wrote. “It comes as no surprise that Ted served three years in the Peace Corps and was stationed

Late last week, as communities across the country kick off the holiday season, members of Congress worked hard to modernize the tax code for the first time in over three decades. House and Senate Republicans understand the dilemma: The tax code keeps our small businesses, including America’s 733,000 independently-owned franchise establishments, from reaching their full potential. From coast to coast – and even right here in Big Sky Country – franchises are being suffocated by the burdensome tax code and tied up in red tape. Despite the challenges they face, America’s small businesses help our neighborhoods flourish, which is why

HELENA — U.S. Sen. Steve Daines is now supporting the $1.4 trillion tax bill because it contains additional tax cuts he says will help small businesses. The Montana Republican said Monday that he opposed the tax bill as it was then written, complaining that it favored large corporations over small businesses. On Friday he said the current version of the bill provides “significant tax relief” for “Main Street businesses”, which he says are responsible for nearly 70 percent of the jobs in the state. The majority of owners of U.S. businesses, both large and small, report their profits on their individual