Montana’s federal delegation, Tribal Chief, address joint session of Legislature

Government, by nature, is not perfect, Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke, a Republican, told members of the 69th Montana Legislature.

But that’s no reason for the state’s lawmakers not to work hard for solutions to the problems facing their constituents.

“I wouldn’t do this job unless I knew that in my heart. And there’s no problem in Montana that’s not fixable,” Zinke said. But, “Don’t look for perfect, because it’s the government. I’ve never seen anything that’s perfect in government.”

Recently re-elected, Zinke was the first of five speakers who addressed the joint session of the Montana Legislature on Feb. 17. He was joined by fellow U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court Cory Swanson and Chairman Justin Gray Hawk Sr. of the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes.

The Congressional delegation cheered on the new administration, called for bipartisan solutions to problems facing Montanans and noted their early wins in Congress, while Gray Hawk praised the state for consulting with Tribal nations and working together on meaningful outcomes.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines was out of the country meeting with the Argentinian president on Monday.

In his 12 minute address, Zinke discussed the work being done by President Donald Trump to swiftly follow through on promises he made on the campaign trail last year and in the early days of his presidency — including pointing out that Google maps shows the newly renamed Gulf of America.

But the Republican representative from Montana’s western district also focused on bipartisan work done across the nation.

“One of the bipartisan issues in Montana and across our country is our environment, our conservation. There’s a reason why we all live here, because we enjoy the great outdoors,” Zinke said. “And the Montana I grew up in, has largely changed.”

Growing up in Whitefish, Zinke said he didn’t have to worry about closed roads and blocked public access. He could knock on a door and ask a property owner for hunting access.

He invoked Teddy Roosevelt, and the days when America understood “there is a great outdoors, and it’s worth defending.”

But now, those outdoors are threatened. He said forests near Libby are dead, wildfires ravage the state every year, decimating the lumber industry and threatening livelihoods.

“Fixing it, in this issue, will not come from one side of the aisle,” he said.

He spoke about the need to balance protecting the natural environment with promoting energy investment. He pointed out a need to keep the Colstrip power plant fired up, as well as preserve the hydropower dams along the Columbia River Basin that power a vast swath of the northwest.

“Montana should be the home of energy. Montana should be the lightbulb of America, and yet we struggle,” he said.

Zinke pointed to expanding natural gas production to use as a bridge, and investing in modular nuclear energy as the ways to unleash Montana energy production for the future.

Zinke ended by calling out out several specific towns across the state that needed infrastructure projects — from aging bridges to nonexistent sewers, to affordable housing crises — and urged state lawmakers to partner with his office to bring solutions to their communities.

“If there’s projects out there that your county would look at that’s been neglected, let me know,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of power, but I have good letterhead.”

‘Keep them safe’

Zinke was followed by fellow U.S. Navy Seal and Montana’s newest Senator, Republican Tim Sheehy who ousted three-term Democrat Jon Tester in November.

Sheehy also spoke about bipartisan work done by Congress in the first weeks of the new session, including passing the Laken Riley Act requiring detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes.

“The most important thing, the most solemn duty that government has to its people is to keep them safe,” Sheehy said. “Fixing potholes is important. Keeping the lights on is important, but keeping our communities safe is the highest calling of any government.”

He called out additional wins by the GOP-controlled Congress, including speedy confirmations of 16 cabinet-level appointees, and an emphasis on bolstering the president’s America-first agenda.

Sheehy made several overtures to Democrats, asking them to leave behind “divisive rhetoric that has characterized the last eight years of politics,” and work together.

Montanans, Sheehy said, “didn’t vote against Jon Tester. They voted for the future of their children and they voted for America First.”

Sheehy said the first bill he introduced as a Senator was the VA Home Loan Awareness Act to ensure veterans have the knowledge and resources necessary to purchase a home “and live the American dream that they so well earned.”

He also introduced legislation to permanently repeal the estate tax and consolidate national wildland firefighting capacity under a single agency.

For a few minutes he spoke about the work being done by Elon Musk to eliminate waste and fraud in the federal government, including taking aim at USAID, an independent agency that delivers humanitarian assistance overseas. The streamlining of the federal government is necessary and will benefit Montanans, Sheehy said.

“What we’ve seen these past few weeks is a radical reform with the federal government, and we’re reforming the federal government so it works for, not against, the people of Montana,” he said. “It’s not too much to ask for the American people that their government, that they elect and they pay for, puts their interests first.”

Downing wants ‘most responsive’ constituent services in country

Rep. Downing, who took office in D.C. last month, said he’s already co-sponsored 39 bills, including a bipartisan one to help small businesses in rural areas.

The former insurance commissioner in Montana said the state churns out university graduates with great ideas, and it has a lot of money, and he wants to help put those ideas and money together to build businesses.

The newly elected Republican representative from Montana’s eastern district sits on a number of committees, including on financial services. Additionally, he said, he serves on a digital assets subcommittee, which will handle blockchain and artificial intelligence, hot topics “for the foreseeable future.”

“That is going to be something that’s very exciting and very scary at the same time, how we deal with that,” Downing said of AI.

Downing, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, said food security is important to him as well, a subject Sheehy also mentioned, and he said he will work hard to help farmers and ranchers stay in production and not have to sell off working land to pay taxes.

“If you want to take a country down, you make it so it can’t feed itself,” Downing said. “I think that our farmers and ranchers are struggling, and they need our support.”

To applause, Downing also said he wants to rebuild the military as a way of maintaining “peace through strength.”

“I want to make sure that we continue to build and maintain the absolute strongest fighting force on this planet, not because we ever want to go to war, but because we want others to be afraid to go to war with us,” Downing said.

He also pointed to a bill he’s sponsoring to limit critical minerals from Russia, in part to prevent it from dumping platinum and palladium onto the market, citing layoffs in the fall at Sibanye-Stillwater mining company. The mine pointed to imports from Russia and a dive in palladium prices as hurting its bottom line.

Downing said his greater goal was to amplify the work being done in Montana at the federal level, and to that end, he invited Montanans to contact his office with concerns, whether about veterans issues or social security or passports, and he said he would be responsive.

“I want to make sure we are the most responsive office in the country in making sure that we’re answering your questions,” Downing said.

Consulting Indian Country

Tribal Chairman Justin Gray Hawk Sr., of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, told Montana politicians he appreciates outreach to Indian Country, and he said the legislature here has the largest American Indian Caucus in the country.

“The Montana voters truly showed the value, that we need a state legislature that includes Indian representatives and Indian voices,” Gray Hawk said.

Gray Hawk, who addressed the Montana Legislature on behalf of the 12 federally recognized tribes in the state, said he appreciates the demonstrated commitment from the Governor’s Office on issues that affect Native Americans, pointing to Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras’ testimony to Congress regarding the pending Fort Belknap water settlement as one example.

He pointed to other examples he said showed the state and tribal nations working together, including Fort Peck’s consultation with the state Department of Transportation regarding roundabouts in Poplar, which “proudly reflect our culture and our community.”

Also, he said, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the state of Montana entered into an “innovative” marijuana tax sharing agreement.

Gray Hawk weighed in on legislation under consideration by legislators as well, warning the Montana Legislature against approving bills that affect treaty obligations, including for hunting and fishing, but he pointed to Medicaid expansion as having been “a lifeline to Indian Country and all of Montanans.”

Gray Hawk also reminded lawmakers of the Charles M. Russell painting that dominates the House chamber and the historic relationships it depicts between the tribes and those who came out West.

The painting is “Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross’ Hole,” from 1912, and it depicts a meeting between Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery and the Salish Indians, who helped the expedition secure horses and directions to safely cross the Bitterroot Mountains, according to the Montana Historical Society.

Gray Hawk said people traveled West to seek natural resources or explore or flee religious persecution, but many tribal nations were already there.

“Many of our tribal nations have been in this territory since time immemorial,” Gray Hawk said.

He said Montana is home to the some of the largest Indian reservations in the United States, and the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized tribes as having a political status, not a racial status.

“We all have much to learn from each other,” Gray Hawk said.

Editor’s note: This piece has been updated with the statement from Sen. Daines’ office on his absence.