In The News
Daines secures additional resources for Montana Census
Trump administration responds to Daines' request U.S. Senator Steve Daines announced that he has successfully secured additional support and resources from the Trump administration to improve Montana's census count. "Montana has so much at stake for the 2020 census including access to federal resources and even the potential for more representation in Congress," Daines said. "I'm glad to see the Trump administration act on my request to send more resources to our state to ensure Montanans are … Continue Reading
09.24.20
Daines Continues Push to Extend Census Deadline
U.S. SENATE - U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined a bipartisan bill that would extend the Census field collection data deadline from September 30th, 2020 to October 31st, 2020. "The 2020 Census will have a lasting impact on Montana; including the distribution of federal resources to the state and even the potential for more representation in Congress," Daines said. "We must extend the census deadline to October 31st to ensure a proper count is completed in Montana." To view the bill, click … Continue Reading
09.24.20
Daines urges Senate to stop Amtrak cuts
US Senator Steve Daines is urging Senate leaders to take action to block upcoming Amtrak service cuts in Montana. Community leaders across the Hi-Line and Northwest Montana have expressed concern about the passenger rail agency's plans to trim service on the Empire Builder" to three trains per week, as soon as next month. Sen. Daines says Amtrak's daily service cut for the Empire Builder, and trimming staff by 20% will "decimate the economies in Montana" and leave "tens of thousands" without r… Continue Reading
09.22.20
Daines urges Senate to pass bill preventing pedophiles from receiving pension
Sen. Steve Daines is urging his colleagues in the U.S. Senate to pass a bill that would prevent convicted pedophiles from receiving federal pensions. Daines, R-Mont., introduced the bill, called the Denying Pensions to Convicted Child Molesters Act, in 2019. The bill comes in response to Stanley Patrick Weber, a former Indian Health Services pediatrician and convicted child molester who abused children for decades, including on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Weber is reportedly due $1.8 mil… Continue Reading
09.21.20
Savanna's Act unanimously passes US House, awaits President Donald Trump's signature
Savanna's Act, a bipartisan bill that addresses the missing and murdered Indigenous women epidemic, unanimously passed the U.S. House of Representatives Monday. The bill unanimously passed the U.S. Senate in March and now awaits President Donald Trump's signature. Named in honor of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a 22-year-old pregnant Spirit Lake tribal member who was killed in 2017, Savanna's Act requires federal agencies to update databases and create protocols to guide law enforcement entitie… Continue Reading
09.21.20
Daines' Forest Management Bill Hear In Subcommittee
Montana Senator Steve Daines on Sept. 16 stumped for legislation he helped draft, saying more forest management would protect communities from wildfires. Republican Daines presented his Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act of 2020 to the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. He said the bill, which he wrote with Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, restores forest health and supports timber jobs. "We have been working together on this important piece of l… Continue Reading
09.21.20
Bill to name mountain B-47 Ridge heads to president's desk
A bill to name a ridge east of the Paradise Valley for an Air Force bomber that crashed there in 1962 is headed to the desk of President Donald Trump. The B-47 Ridge Designation Act passed the U.S. House unanimously on Monday, clearing the final hurdle between it and the president. The bill would dub a ridge off the southwest side of Emigrant Peak as B-47 Ridge and allow the placing of a memorial plaque at the crash site. It's where four Air Force pilots died in 1962 while flying a training mi… Continue Reading
09.18.20
Daines urges Administration to provide support for Montana Census, ensure all Montanans are represented
U.S. Senator Steve Daines sent a letter urging the Administration to direct additional Census resources to Montana in the final weeks of the field data collection operations to ensure all Montanans are represented. "Given the rural nature of Montana and the additional challenges brought about by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Montanans may go uncounted and entire communities could be underrepresented at the federal level," Daines wrote. "I am requesting that trained Census personne… Continue Reading
09.18.20
Daines Secures Over $300,000 for Vaughn Volunteer Fire Department
U.S. Senator Steve Daines today announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program will be directing $333,333.33 to the Vaughn Volunteer Fire Department. "This is about ensuring our firefighters in Vaughn have the critical support needed to keep our communities safe during this fire season," Daines said. "I will continue working to ensure all of our brave firefighters have the help they need as they work to battle wildfires across Montana." … Continue Reading
09.17.20
'The West is burning.' Daines, Feinstein testify on Emergency Wildfire Act
In a political era when Republicans and Democrats rarely agree on anything, the catastrophic wildfire season now raging across the American west could prove compelling enough to rally bipartisan support for legislation to change how forests are managed. That is the hope of Sens. Steve Daines and Dianne Feinstein; one a Montana Republican the other a California Democrat, who on Wednesday spoke in common support of the Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act, a bill that would substantively alte… Continue Reading
09.16.20
'Nothing left in the bucket': Wildfire resources run thin
Justin Silvera came off the fire lines in Northern California after a grueling 36 straight days battling wildfires and evacuating residents ahead of the flames. Before that, he and his crew had worked for 20 days, followed by a three-day break. Silvera, a 43-year-old battalion chief with Cal Fire, California's state firefighting agency, said he's lost track of the blazes he's fought this year. He and his crew have sometimes been on duty for 64 hours at a stretch, their only rest coming in 20-mi… Continue Reading
09.16.20
Daines wildfire bill would speed forestry work
Smoke from the West Coast wildfires helped set the stage for a Washington, D.C., hearing on a new wildfire and forest management bill backed by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana. "The West is burning, people are dying, and the smoke is literally starting to cover our country," Republican Daines said during a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday. "Our way of life as we know it is in danger." California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein partnered with Daines t… Continue Reading
09.16.20
Daines Successfully Secures Additional Resources for Montana Census
Trump administration responds to Daines' request U.S. SENATE - U.S. Senator Steve Daines today announced that he has successfully secured additional support and resources from the Trump administration to improve Montana's census count. "Montana has so much at stake for the 2020 census including access to federal resources and even the potential for more representation in Congress," Daines said. "I'm glad to see the Trump administration act on my request to send more resources to our state to e… Continue Reading
09.11.20
U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Steve Daines Announce Senate Hearing for Bipartisan Wildfire Bill
Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) announced their bipartisan Emergency Wildfire and Dianne FeinsteinPublic Safety Act has been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on September 16, 2020. Feinstein and Daines recently wrote to the committee requesting a hearing for their bill. "More than 2 million acres have already burned this year in California, and the situation is getting worse by the day," said Feinstein. "This is a crisi… Continue Reading
09.11.20
Senator Daines on the Friday Montana Morning News Program
Montana Senator Steve Daines made a brief appearance on the KGVO Montana Morning News show on Friday to talk about a number of subjects. After saying he would be speaking later in the day at a 9-11 ceremony in Bozeman, Daines then spoke of the fires burning throughout the state, especially in Gallatin County, and how a bill he is sponsoring in the U.S. Senate may bring relief. "We're going to have a hearing on this bill that I introduced with Dianne Feinstein," said Daines. "Now, it's ki… Continue Reading
09.11.20
Western Senators Urge Colleagues to Delist Greater Yellowstone Grizzly Bears
At a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, several western senators advocated for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to be removed from the list of endangered species and for states to manage the species. The hearing focused on S.614, the Grizzly Bear State Management Act, which U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. introduced in February 2019. The bill would direct the Department of the Interior to re-issue its 2017 decision to delist the grizzly bear in the Greater Y… Continue Reading
09.10.20
Yellowstone grizzly delisting bill gets Senate hearing
The fight over lifting federal protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears moved to a U.S. Senate committee room on Wednesday. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on S. 614, the Grizzly Bear State Management Act. The bill, introduced by Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, would direct federal officials to reissue the 2017 rule that removed Endangered Species Act protections from bears in the Yellowstone region. It would also bar any litigation over the move. The… Continue Reading
09.10.20
$11M grant awarded to Billings for Inner Belt Loop project
BILLINGS - Billings will receive an $11 million federal grant for a major infrastructure project, officials announced Thursday. The funding will go towards completing the Northwest Billings Connector and Marathon Loop. Funds will create nearly 25 miles of continuous parkways and improve access to residential and employment areas near Billings International Airport, according to a press release issued by U.S. Sen. Stave Daines. "This BUILD grant funding will help modernize infrastructure in Bil… Continue Reading
09.08.20
Daines backs grizzly delisting bill
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines has co-sponsored a bill to remove Endangered Species Act protection from grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and prevent any court challenge. The bill gets its first hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday morning. Fellow Republican Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming authored the 80-word Grizzly Bear Management Act of 2019, which would reissue the Department of Interior's 2017 delisting rule for Greater Yellowstone grizzlies "wi… Continue Reading
09.08.20
Sen. Daines leads push against minimum insurance increase
A contingent of U.S. Senators are standing up against a push to significantly increase the minimum insurance requirement for motor carriers. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and six of his colleagues sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in response to a provision added to House Democrats' version of a highway bill that would increase the liability insurance coverage requirement from $750,000 to $2 million per truck. "We ask that you refrain from includi… Continue Reading
