U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) this week requested that leaders in Congress approve several bills critical to maintaining Montana’s public lands, as well as those around the nation.
“As we enter the remaining weeks of the 115th Congress, I urge passage of several Montana priorities in any public lands legislative package or other legislative vehicle that emerges,” Sen. Daines wrote in an Oct. 30 letter sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), and U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
“I find it critical for the Senate and House to produce tangible and meaningful results for the American people and place politics aside, regardless of the election outcome this fall,” wrote the senator, referencing next week’s midterm elections.
Sen. Daines wants to see legislation approved to reauthorize permanently and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), combat wildfires, protect the Paradise Valley and Gardiner Basin from mining in his home state, and restore aging infrastructure in national parks, according to a statement from his office.
In Sen. Daines’ letter, the lawmaker noted that such priorities “have been favorably reported in a bipartisan way from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee,” and provide an opportunity for Congress to prioritize the important policy results he mentioned.
Sen. Daines, who serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, helped move five bills through the legislative process and detailed them in his letter for the leaders.
For instance, the Land and Water Conservation Authorization and Funding Act, S. 569, would permanently reauthorize and fully fund the LWCF, a program Daines wrote “has proven time and time again to be an important land management tool in Montana.”
He noted that a program as important to land management as the LWCF “and our way of life in the West must not lapse for much longer.”
In his letter to congressional leaders, Sen. Daines also outlined similar benefits in the Restore Our Parks Act, S. 3172; the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act, S. 941; the Protect Collaboration for Healthier Forests Act, S. 2160; and the Clean Water for Rural Communities Act, S. 685.
He thanked his colleagues in advance for a “commitment to put politics aside and enact bipartisan legislation that will improve stewardship of our iconic public lands, resources, and wildlife in the West.”