Daines and Tester Split Vote on Budget Bill
$467.5 Billion bill will fund half of government through September 30
By Denise Rivette
After Montana Representatives Matt Rosendale and Ryan Zinke split their votes on the budget bill in the House earlier this week, this evening Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester did the same in the Senate. The final 75-22 Senate vote had Daines voting against the bill and Tester voting for it. The vote came just a few hours before the midnight deadline, after which, had a bill not passed, the government would have started shutting down for lack of funding.
The spending package includes funding for the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Transportation and Veterans Affairs, providing the money needed for those departments to continue functioning through September 30. Another deadline of March 22 looms for passage of another bill providing the funding needed to avoid the other half of the government shutting down.
Senator Tester was first following the vote to release a statement in which he detailed the benefits Montana will see as a result of this bill passing. He was particularly proud that the bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and delivered for our nation’s veterans. Senator Daines followed up with a statement detailing why he could not support the bill.
“Every single day hardworking Montanans punch the clock and do their jobs, and they expect their elected officials to do the same,” said Tester. “I’m glad Republicans and Democrats came together and I’m proud to deliver targeted investments that will honor the commitment we’ve made to our nation’s veterans, support the brave men and women in law enforcement, keep Montana’s public lands and rural economy strong, and invest Montana farmers and ranchers. Now I will continue to work as Chairman of the Senate committee that sets the military’s budget to ensure our armed forces have the necessary resources to keep our nation safe.”
Tester’s press release went on to proudly detail “Key wins for Montana and our nation” that Tester backed including:
Wins for Montana Air National Guard and America’s Military:
$30 million for Montana Air National Guard Fuel Facilities
$1.8 billion for 25 projects in the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) theater that support the Pacific Deterrence Initiative to counter China
$300 million for projects and accounts supporting the European Deterrence Initiative to combat Russian aggression
Wins Honoring Our Nation’s Veterans:
Tester secured an amendment to protect veterans’ access to legal firearms.
Provision would prohibit federal funds from being used to report a veteran’s information to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) without an order from a judge finding that the individual is a danger to themselves or others.
$16.2 billion for veterans’ mental health care, including $559 million for suicide prevention outreach.
$5.16 billion for telehealth, which is $5 million above the President’s Budget request, for sustainment and expansion of these services.
$171 million is for Grants for Construction of State Extended Care Facilities, which would allow VA to provide more grants to assist states in constructing State Veterans Homes, like the Southwest Montana State Veterans Home in Butte.
$2.1 billion is for VA Construction programs, including the major and minor construction of health care facilities, cemeteries, and VA benefits offices.
$30.3 million for the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, to promote and improve accountability at VA.
$990 million for women veteran-specific health care, to meet the demands of the fastest-growing population of veterans at VA.
Secured report language telling VA to improve its contracting process related to ground and air ambulance services reimbursement rates.
Wins for Public Safety, Combatting Fentanyl, and Supporting Law Enforcement:
Funding for the police secured by Tester includes:
$1.59 billion for grants that support local police and sheriffs’ departments and efforts to promote public safety
$924 million for Byrne JAG
$664.5 million for COPS
$30 million for bulletproof vests
$16 million for the COPS Anti-Meth Task Force
$44 million for RISS
$600 million for Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Law Enforcement and Justice services
Combatting fentanyl and drug trafficking wins secured by Tester include:
Directs the FBI to allocate the maximum amount of resources to support efforts to combat fentanyl
$189 million for the Comprehensive Opioid and Substance Use Disorder Program
$547 million for Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces to enhance multi-agency efforts to combat transnational organized crime and reduce the availability of illicit drugs
$2.567 billion for the DEA
Wins Protecting Public Lands
Montana projects under Tester’s Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) requested in the President’s Budget were included. Under Tester’s LWCF, Montana received:
Blackfoot River Watershed - $2.2 million
Lolo National Forest - $10.5 million
Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest I - $1.927 million
Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest II - $1.62 million
Upper Thompson Connectivity Project - $7 million
Deferred maintenance funds for:
Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest - $710,000
Custer Gallatin- $4.64 million
Flathead National Forest (Idaho and Montana)- $2.857 million
Kootenai National Forest $4.186 million
Lolo National Forest (Seeley Lake Bunkhouse)- $515,000
Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest (Idaho and Montana) - $2.78 million
Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest - $4.186 million
Missoula Smokejumper Visitor Center Renovation- $1.15 million
Research and Development deferred maintenance- $1.75 million
Wins for Montana Farmers and Ranchers:
$30.5 million for Packers and Stockyards (P&S) enforcement after Tester successfully called on Congress to stand up to big ag consolidation and oppose efforts to weaken the Packers and Stockyards Act in the FY 2024 Agriculture Appropriations bill.
$3.5 million for Western Precision Livestock Management, with Montana receiving $1 million
Invests in the Rangeland Grasshopper suppression program
Increased funding for the Barley Pest Initiative
Wins for Montana Housing:
Invests in the Community Development Block Grant formula, which is used by Montana’s local governments to fund affordable housing developments
Includes funding for the Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) initiative to protect Montanans in manufactured housing communities from losing their homes to out of state investors
Funds the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which is a flexible grant initiative for local government to increase the availability of affordable and workforce housing
Funds the Self-help homeownership opportunity program (SHOP), which funds opportunities for homebuyers to participate in building homes to keep costs down.
Invests in the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (Neighborworks), which helps low-income Montanans access homeownership.
Wins for Montana’s Tech Hub:
$41 million to the Economic Development Agency for awarding planning and implementation grants through the Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs Program, the top CHIPS and Science priority for Tester.
Tester successfully secured a regional Tech Hub designation for Montana in October.
Wins for Montana Energy and Water:
Army Corp of Engineers
$10,371,000 for O&M at Fort Peck Dam
$210,000 inspection for completed works in MT
2,035,000 O&M at Libby Dam
$147,000 Scheduling reservoir operations in MT
Bureau of Reclamation and Water Projects
$11,844,000 for Canyon Ferry Unit
$82,000 for East Bench Unit
$286,000 for Helena Valley Unit
$700,000 for the Hungry Horse Project
$65,000 for the Huntley Project
$1,762,000 for the Lower Marias Unit
$1,081,000 for the Lower Yellowstone Project
$1,925,000 for the Milk River Project, $2 million less
$1,266,000 for Missouri Basin O&M
$8,946,000 for Rocky Boy/North Central MT Rural Water System, $2 million increase
$557,000 for Sun River Project
$13,088,000 for Yellowtail unit
Daines Won’t Use His Vote to Support “Pork Barrel Spending” or a “Broken Budget Process”
Senator Steve Daines issued the following statement after voting against the spending package that includes $12,700,000,000 of earmarks and perpetuates Washington’s broken budget process.
“Instead of doing its job and passing responsible spending bills on time, Congress continues to fail Montanans and the American people. It is unacceptable that we are almost halfway through the fiscal year and are still trying to pass spending bills. This 1,000-plus page package is chock full of wasteful spending. I won’t stand by and greenlight this abuse of taxpayer funds. We must put an end to Washington’s toxic spending habits.”
You can see him making his statement below:
Some particular examples of what Daines identified as pork barrel spending (earmarks) in the bill include:
$3,500,000 for Michigan’s Thanksgiving Parade Foundation
$1,000,000 for an environmental justice center in New York City
$1,000,000 for gardens in San Francisco
$1,650,000 for the “Environmental Leaders of Color” to build an artists’ living and workplace in New York
Earlier this week, Senator Daines helped introduce a resolution condemning the practice of earmarks and calling for a “return to fiscal sanity”.
Daines’ press release ended by pointing out that before the final vote on today’s budget bill, every single Senate Democrat voted against an amendment that would have prevented illegal immigrants from being included in population calculations for congressional redistricting and Electoral College votes.