Category: News Article

The National Park Service, faced with overflowing garbage and toilets as the government shutdown enters its third week, plans to tap entrance fees to pay for expanded operations at its most popular sites, the Washington Post reported Sunday. The move came as Sen. Steve Daines urged the Park Service to find a way to ease pressure on communities surrounding the parks, which have pitched in with volunteers at popular places like Yellowstone National Park. Daines wrote acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Saturday, advising him to allow some federal spending to supplement volunteer maintenance efforts. President Donald Trump shut down

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., released the following statement after President Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill on Thursday. Daines secured critical priorities for Montana farmers and ranchers and strong forestry provisions to help prevent catastrophic wildfire.   “As Montana’s lone voice on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, I fought hard to ensure Montana ag priorities and forest management reforms were included in the 2018 Farm Bill,” Daines said. “I’m pleased President Trump signed this critical bill into law today — which will give certainty to Montana farmers and ranchers, and help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire.” The 2018

Despite its failure Wednesday night, Montana’s two U.S. senators and conservationists are optimistic about pushing a public lands package through Congress in early January that includes a ban on new public land mining claims north of Yellowstone National Park and renewal of a popular conservation fund. Republican Sen. Steve Daines and Democratic Sen. Jon Tester were part of a group of western lawmakers trying to attach a suite of public lands legislation to the spending bill the Senate passed Wednesday night. The package included the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act and permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Daines

BILLINGS- Two pieces of key legislation in a massive lands package will not be addressed in Congress before 2018 is up. The bipartisan Land and Water Conservation Fund will not be reauthorized for funding this year and neither will the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act,  two bills near and dear to Montanans. According to Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines’ office, Congress refused to bring the lands issue to the Senate floor Wednesday night. Daines is a leader on the lands package along with other senators from western states . Also failing to advance was Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s Yellowstone Gateway

Montana’s congressional delegation offered comment Thursday about the farm bill signed by President Donald J. Trump. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who said he was Montana’s lone voice on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, said he ensured Montana agriculture priorities and forest management reforms were included in the bill. “I’m pleased President Trump signed this critical bill into law today – which will give certainty to Montana farmers and ranchers, and help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire,” he said. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said he met with farmers and ranchers across the state. He said he worked hard to make sure this

The MonDak’s Republican legislators have joined forces with several other Republican legislators for a full-court press urging President Donald Trump to take whatever immediate actions he can to get construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline moving again. The pipeline’s construction ground to a halt in November, after a Montana District Court ruling that found certain portions of the Trump administration’s analysis were wanting and that certain aspects of the Environmental Impact Study were outdated. Judge Brian Morris, out of Great Falls, said the Trump administration could not simply ignore the Obama administration’s rationale in changing policies. It had to provide

A year and six months after her sister disappeared, Kimberly Loring will tell Congress what went wrong in the search, where law enforcement misstepped and why the nation needs to pay attention. The cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women has become a crisis, she’ll say. Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, 20, disappeared in June 2017. Kimberly Loring has been looking for her ever since. Ashley Loring is one of an unknown number of missing Native women and girls. The AP reported that no one knows how many are missing because the disappearances are sometimes unreported, aren’t documented thoroughly and aren’t part of

A bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., to address a terrifyingepidemic passed the Senate last week.  The bill to help address the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic unanimously passed the Senate Thursday night, just a few weeks after the Senate Indian Affairs Committee unanimously voted to send Savanna’s Act to the Senate floor.” The bill is now on its way to the House before it will reach the president’s desk. Roosevelt County Undersheriff, John Summers said, “I don’t know a whole lot about this act, but it’s got to be a good thing.” Summers went on to

BILLINGS – A congressional measure that has interest in Montana as well as many other western states has cleared a hurdle in the process of becoming a bill, Thursday in the U.S Senate. Savanna’s Act secured all unanimous votes, keeping the bill alive and headed for approval in the U.S House of Representatives before heading to the president’s desk. Introduced by Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, the measure has secured bipartisan support from Montana’s delegation. The bill is named for Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, who was abducted and killed in Fargo, North Dakota. Savanna’s Act requires the Department of Justice to

Sen. Steve Daines said Tuesday that his recent trip to Turkey and Afghanistan reminded him that the “end game” is a political settlement with the Taliban and an Afghan government that can function on its own. However, the situation in the war which is now in it 17th year is complex, Daines said, adding a U.S. withdrawal now would have devastating consequences and put Americans at risk. In a telephone call with reporters, the Montana Republican said he visited troops with the Kalispell-based 495th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion now serving in Afghanistan on an air base north of Kabul. They are