In The News

While Congress is in recess, Sen. Steve Daines is traveling the state discussing topics from wildfires to the Endangered Species Act to gun violence. At Bridger Aerospace in Belgrade on Tuesday, Daines, a Bozeman Republican, spoke about a bill he plans to introduce this fall aimed at reducing wildfire risk. The legislation, which he will cosponsor with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, will include efforts like more aggressively thinning trees near roads and trails because he said most human-caused wildfires start within a half mile of roads or trails. “Either we need to better manage our forests or our

Sen. Steve Daines this week defended his environmental voting record by expressing support for funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund at its full amount while opposing the transfer of federal lands back to the states. But he remained noncommittal on the appointment of William Pendley to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley has advocated for transferring or selling public lands and is viewed by some as an ideological extremist on the issue. “You have a director in Interior Secretary David Bernhardt who has been adamant in his opposition to the transfer of federal lands to the states,” Daines

Montana’s Republican lawmaker in the U.S. Senate touted Monday his bipartisan work to a crowd in one of the state’s most Democrat-voting cities. Sen. Steve Daines spoke at City Club Missoula’s monthly luncheon at the DoubleTree Hotel about everything from gun control to public land ownership to the federal deficit to Mexican meth during a question-and-answer session. He was met with protesters outside the building who want him to work toward funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund fully with $900 million instead of just $600 million, and he was asked by a local high school student who endured a

NORTH HILLS — Standing yards above the makeshift range where a person shooting exploding targets sparked a wildfire last month, Tri-Lakes Fire Chief Bob Drake grabbed the top of one of the 3 ½-foot tall Ponderosa pine saplings populating the area that he said presented a huge problem when trying to fight the fire. “It was a really difficult initial attack,” Drake said. “ … (Firefighters were) doing everything they can, and this is what they’re dealing with and they can’t even get through that. You can’t stop it in this. I don’t care what you’ve got.” The North Hills fire grew to

Wanting to highlight Montana’s lesser visited national parks, Sen. Steve Daines will host a National Parks Subcommittee Senate hearing live at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Grant-Kohrs National Historic Site north of Deer Lodge. The Republican senator has invited a list of officials, from Powell County Commissioner Ralph E. Mannix, Jr., to Toby O’Rourke, president and chief executive officer of Kampgrounds of America Inc., to hold a conversation about how to increase visitation at all of Montana’s national parks. Others who will be there to talk will include Palmer “Chip” Jenkins, Intermountain Region National Park Service acting regional director, and Sarah

MISSOULA — US Senator Steve Daines says new forest management reform legislation will take “concrete, meaningful steps” to improve forest health and reduce the risk of wildfires. The Republican also hopes teaming up with veteran Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California will convince Congress the issue is critical and needs to be addressed across party lines. Word came late last week that Daines and Feinstein are working on legislation that would protect public safety by expediting and expanding the removal of dead, dying and hazardous trees in national forests. The pair had jointly authored a letter in 2016, even before

With traffic rushing by on Flynn Lane, Sen. Steve Daines on Friday placed his support behind Missoula’s application for a $15 million federal grant that would set the stage for future growth through new connector roads and vital infrastructure. Joined by city and county officials, Daines described the Mullan BUILD project as key to Missoula’s future. If the grant were successful, it could guide future growth and create new housing stock, something that’s needed to combat rising housing costs. “This is going to be one of my highest priorities in Washington,” said Daines, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee,

Senators from California and Montana said Thursday that they plan to introduce a bipartisan bill that aims to protect communities from wildfires like the one that killed 85 people and destroyed much of the Northern California town of Paradise last year. Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Steve Daines of Montana told The Associated Press they will introduce the bill after the Senate’s August recess, but wanted to announce their plans now as the western U.S. states enter their peak fire season. “Unfortunately, millions of acres of forests in our states and across the West remain at high risk

Sen. Daines introduced the Budgetary Accuracy in Scoring Interest Costs (BASIC) Act Thursday, which would require both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation to include projected interest expenses associated with legislative proposals. Daines said that including interest is necessary to accurately account for the budgetary cost of the legislation.  Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and David Perdue (R-GA), two fiscal hawks, also cosponsored Daines’ BASIC Act. Daines’ legislation arises as the Senate passed a two-year budget agreement,that would increase federal spending by $320 billion over two years. The federal government requires both the JCT and CBO to provide