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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 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

The passage of the Great American Outdoors Act in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday sparked praise statewide, with Montana’s two U.S. senators saying it was an example of Washington at its bipartisan best. The bill would spend about $900 million a year — double current spending — on the Land and, Water, Conservation Fund (LWCF), and make it a permanent fund. It would also spend another $1.9 billion per year on improvements at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and rangelands, the Associated Press reported. If passed and signed by the president, it would reportedly be the most significant conservation legislation

The Senate passed the most significant conservation legislation in decades on Wednesday, clearing a package to secure steady funding for public lands that came together only after the popular bipartisan measure got a lift from election year politics. The core ideas in the bill — fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually and providing billions to address maintenance backlogs on the nation’s public lands — have drawn significant support from both parties for years. But it was tough elections facing two of the package’s lead backers, Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Steve Daines

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

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

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.

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,