Steve Daines

Readout of Daines’ Congressional Delegation Trip to China - Senator Steve Daines

U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-MT), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Deb Fischer (R-NE) today conducted three official meetings in Beijing with Premier of China Li Qiang, Chairman of the National People’s Congress Zhao Leji, and Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The bipartisan delegation discussed the importance of direct and open communication between the leadership of the two countries as well as issues of international and local importance. Topics of discussion included cooperation to stop the flow of fentanyl precursors, Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, and supply chain security. The Senators discussed the importance of reciprocal trade and opening up China’s markets to sustained agriculture trade across beef, wheat, pulse crops, potatoes, apples, cherries, soybeans, grain sorghum, seafood, and other industries. The delegation also discussed the importance of China’s relationship with Boeing and the proposed aircraft purchase currently under consideration. The Senators expressed their hope for an impactful and successful summit between President Trump and President Xi next week. Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins

Daines Leads Delegation of U.S. Senators to China - Senator Steve Daines

Trip will focus on Chinese Technology and Domestic Innovation WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Steve Daines, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced today he is leading a bipartisan congressional delegation of five senators on a visit to China this week. The delegation will visit various tech businesses in Shanghai and Beijing and meet with Chinese officials. “In order to effectively compete with China, we need to understand China’s innovation ecosystem, which is why I am glad to be here with my colleagues. With the United States and China making up 40 percent of the total world economy, engaging the Chinese is vital to maintaining U.S. competitiveness globally,” said Daines. This is Daines’ seventh trip to China since being elected to Congress. He spent thirteen years in a management role for Procter & Gamble, the last six in China launching American brands to compete against Chinese companies. The delegation also includes Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Jerry Moran (R-KS). Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins

Daines Chairs Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Discusses Revitalizing American Diplomacy & Furthering National Security - Senator Steve Daines

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Steve Daines chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. He spoke with Darrell Owens, nominee to be U.S. Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Representative George Holding, nominee to be United States Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He also spoke with William Trachman, nominee to be Ambassador to Tanzania, and Juan Rodriguez, nominee to be Ambassador to Guatemala. Watch Daines’ opening remarks HERE and the full hearing HERE. I want to thank our nominees today for joining us and for your willingness to serve our great country. It is because of people like you that we are able to further our national security and our national interests. And I extend my sincere thanks to you and your families. And I see many of the families here joining you right behind you. President Trump and Secretary Rubio are working tirelessly to further American national interests to make the world safer and more prosperous for Americans and to reform and revitalize U.S. diplomacy. Their efforts around the world have produced incredible results, bringing peace to war-torn regions like the South Caucasus. I got to see that firsthand, seeing Azerbaijan and Armenia brokering a peace deal, something that had basically a hot war for 35 years, but not today. They've been stemming the tide of deadly fentanyl entering our country, putting our adversaries on the back foot, furthering U.S. business interests and investment abroad, as well as foreign investment in the United States. They should be commended for their hard work. Under their leadership, America is back on the world stage. If confirmed, all four of you will become part of that effort to further the U.S. national interest. While the countries and institutions at which you will represent the United States are both geographically and functionally diverse, and just looking at where you all are headed, once confirmed, it's demonstrated right here with this panel that you will all be a very important part of the State Department's team, and your efforts are critical to the President's initiatives. Again, I'd like to thank each of you personally, as well as your families, speaking as somebody who has lived abroad for a number of years when I was in the private sector. Thank you for your willingness to serve. And I very much look forward to your testimonies. Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins

Daines and Secretary Burgum in Senate Energy Committee: Pass the America the Beautiful Act, Reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund - Senator Steve Daines

Position: Senator Daines advocates for passage of the America the Beautiful Act to reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund by July 4th, 2026, and supports federal funding for rural water infrastructure projects in Montana including the Lower Yellowstone River Native Fish Conservation Act, Fort Peck Water System Reauthorization Act, and the Dry Redwater Rural Water Project.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today spoke with Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing. They discussed the importance of passing Daines’ bill, the America the Beautiful Act, as well as completing critical water projects in Montana. Daines on his “America the Beautiful Act” and reauthorizing the Legacy Restoration Fund: Daines: Secretary Burgum, good to have you back up on the Hill. I want to talk about our national parks. And Angus King and I are the co-chairs of the National Parks Subcommittee. We don't even actually call ourselves the ranking member or the chairman. We're always co-chairs in the spirit of bipartisanship. And our national parks should always be one of the most bipartisan issues we have here on Capitol Hill. They're the gems of our public lands. And Montana is blessed to have some of the crown jewels as part of the park service. You won't find a topic that brings Congress together more than supporting our national parks. I'm very glad to see President Trump fully support the reauthorization of the Legacy Restoration Fund for this year's budget. Behind me is a direct quote from President Trump's budget brief from OMB. Congress must take the direction of President Trump, reauthorize this by America's 250th anniversary, and last time I checked, that's scheduled for July 4th. Senator King's and my hugely bipartisan America the Beautiful Act does just that, and our support is only growing. Secretary Burgum, as of this morning, we have 52cosponsors, evenly divided. We bring them on like Noah's Ark, two by two. We've got 26 Republicans. We've got 26 Democrats. We've got perfect equilibrium right now as we go forward. My question for you, Mr. Secretary, do you agree that we must reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund, and will you work with me to get that bill on President Trump's desk by July 4th? Daines on water projects in Montana: Daines:I want to talk about rural water. It's the lifeblood of rural communities. Here in Washington, D.C., we get over 41 inches of rain a year. I think a little more than Seattle does, believe it or not, back in where we're from, in North Dakota and Montana. Our average rainfall up on our Hi-Line, it can be 12 to 15 inches a year. It's a semiarid environment. I'm working on numerous bills to fund and build safe drinking water and expand irrigation for communities in eastern Montana. My Lower Yellowstone River Native Fish Conservation Act will ensure farmers and ranchers are not strapped with a financial burden of federal endangered species management. My Fort Peck Water System Reauthorization Act will ensure the completion of a water system in northeastern Montana, and I'm soon going to release a bill to begin construction of the Dry Redwater Rural Water Project. I know these are kind of in the weeds, but I will tell you what, as you know, Mr. Secretary, somebody who's been the governor of North Dakota, these projects are absolutely lifelines for our ag community and, frankly, just to have clean water to drink. These are sometimes Third World kind of problems, believe it or not, we have in some of these underserved areas across states like Montana, to help towns like Circle, Montana, Jordan, Montana. All these will need your support and funding to complete. I've also worked on the St. Mary Project and the Milk River Irrigation System to have the necessary funding to fix and upgrade a 100-year-old infrastructure on the Hi-Line. Here's my question. Yesterday, I sent you a letter asking you to utilize an unspent reclamation funding from our historic working families tax cuts to support the St. Mary project. Would you work with me to get the money to the Hi-Line to help our farmers, our ranchers, and our communities? Burgum: These projects sound like good ones. Daines on completing the Fort Belknap water rights settlement: Daines: Secretary Burgum, we had a good discussion when you were in Montana about completing our last Indian water settlement. Fact is, last night we had an amazing event at the White House. We had many of our Supreme Court justices there. Justice Gorsuch is one of them there, who certainly is one of the leading thinkers on tribal rights and tribal water rights that go back to the treaty, certainly that predated statehood in our great states. I cannot stress enough the need for the Northern Montana Water Security Act to pass. You can't sign a law yet this year. It's the last water compact we have. As we say out west, whiskey's for drinking, but water's for fighting. And we've got to get these issues solved. Montana's Hi-Line is one of the largest spring wheat producers in the country. If we don't finish this settlement, that production's at risk. President Trump, thankfully, has been a champion for our farmers and our ranchers. And completing the Fort Belknap water settlement will be a feather in the cap for this administration. Secretary Burgum, I don't think we can wait any longer. They are sticky, tough issues to resolve. Sometimes century-old fights were very, very close. And I credit the leadership of Fort Belknap that tribal politics can get very, very interesting back home. The tribe was the first one to admit that. They have found a path forward here, taking some courageous steps to frame a water settlement that we can agree with. For 10 years, I had to tell them, I can't agree with what you're doing because you're conflating a couple issues. They cleaned it up, said it's going to be about water only. I said, now you've got an ally here to get this done. So we can't wait any longer. I want to work with Secretary Burgum to get it done this year. Thanks again for all you're doing in your leadership at Interior. Grateful for your service. Burgum: Well, President Trump loves to get deals done! Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins

Daines, Sheehy, Zinke, Downing Send Letter to Bureau of Reclamation Requesting Funds to Repair St. Mary Diversion Dam and Canal  - Senator Steve Daines

Position: The delegation requests federal funding through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to repair the St. Mary Diversion Dam and Canal in Montana, which has experienced capacity loss and infrastructure failures affecting irrigation and water resources.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy, as well as Congressmen Ryan Zinke (MT-01) and Troy Downing (MT-02) today sent a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation requesting funding to repair the St. Mary Diversion Dam and Canal. “We write to urge full and fair consideration of the St. Mary Diversion Dam and Canal of the Milk River Project (Project) in northwestern Montana to be an authorized recipient of funding as appropriated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, titled under “Water Conveyance and Surface Water Storage Enhancement.” When the Canal was originally constructed in 1915, it had the capacity to divert up to 850 cubic feet per second (cfs). However, due to its age, capacity has declined to only 600 cfs. This reduction in capacity is leading to a loss of more than 100-million-acre feet that’s flowing across the border into Canada every day… …While two out of the five Drops have been successfully replaced, failure of the remaining three is imminent. As you may know, Drop 5 failed in 2020 and the Siphon failed in 2025, leading to the complete loss of the irrigation season for local and regional producers, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The failure of any three remaining Drops could once again lead to catastrophic failure and severe economic loss. Funding under “Water Conveyance and Surface Water Storage Enhancement” was designated specifically for “construction and associated activities that restore or increase the capacity or use of existing conveyance facilities constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation.” The current fragility of the system speaks to the dire need to restore this key infrastructure to protect our precious water resources,” they wrote in the letter. Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins

ICYMI: Daines Op-Ed in the Washington Times: The Future of Made-in-America Energy - Senator Steve Daines

Position: Senator Daines advocates for an all-of-the-above energy agenda that includes coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower. He supports streamlining federal permitting processes for energy projects and opposes regulatory restrictions on fossil fuel development and coal leasing.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Steve Daines penned an opinion piece for the Washington Times on the future of Made-In-America energy. Read it below. The Future of Made-In-America Energy Our nation’s energy sector supports more than 8.5 million jobs, contributes trillions to the U.S. economy and provides critical support to our nation’s national security. However, with the need for U.S. energy expected to grow nearly 50% in the next 25 years, it is crucial we do everything we can to meet this rise in demand and bolster Made-in-America energy. That is why I am a strong supporter of an all-of-the-above energy agenda. Montana is a prime example of what is possible on the national level as we work to harness all sources of energy. Montana is rich in natural resources, from wind and hydro to coal and natural gas. For four years, however, President Joe Biden’s administration waged a relentless war on Montana’s energy industry. Montana has more recoverable coal than any other state in the nation, but all our major coal mines were on the cusp of shutting down because of the Biden administration’s burdensome regulations and anti-energy policies. Thankfully, under President Donald Trump, those days are over. We worked together to save each of Montana’s coal mines. Most recently, it was my honor to stand next to President Trump at the White House on the 4th of July as he signed the Working Families Tax Cut into law, which included my provision to keep Montana’s Bull Mountains Mine open and saved nearly 400 jobs. Last year, Congressional Republicans also overturned a harmful proposal from the Biden administration that would have banned future coal leasing in all of eastern Montana. President Biden’s Miles City Resource Management Plan would have blocked coal mining on two million acres of land, stifled job growth and caused the loss of nearly $4.3 billion in future revenue. I introduced a congressional resolution along with my Montana colleagues Sen. Tim Sheehy, Rep. Troy Downing and Rep. Ryan Zinke to overturn this catastrophic proposal, and President Trump signed it into law this past December. Montana mining is back thanks to President Trump and his administration. However, there’s always more work to be done. In addition to coal, nuclear and fossil fuels, hydropower is also an important source of baseload power for our nation. Hydropower is especially prevalent in Montana. A primary issue facing the hydropower industry is burdensome regulation as well as costly and lengthy licensing processes. My “Build More Hydro” bill would help extend hydropower licenses for projects licensed before 2020. By improving the licensing process, we can streamline projects and help ensure their timely completion. Critical energy projects often get delayed because of outdated, bureaucratic systems. I’m also working with my colleagues on the bipartisan ePermit Act, which will modernize the federal permitting process. The ePermit Act will bring us into the 21st century by digitalizing the permitting process, allowing for swifter review and completion. These permit and license reform bills are critical for energy projects, both in Montana and across the nation, and I’ll fight to get them across the finish line. We’ve made a lot of progress in the past year to ensure American energy dominance. I am confident that under the leadership of President Trump, we are paving the way for a bright future in America a future that will create even more jobs and ensure our nation remains the global leader in energy production. Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins

Daines Urges HHS Secretary Kennedy to Reinstate Safeguards on Abortion Pill - Senator Steve Daines

Position: Senator Daines urges HHS Secretary Kennedy to reinstate in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone (the abortion pill), citing safety concerns for women and citing evidence of serious real-world consequences.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today spoke in a Senate Finance Committee hearing with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They discussed regulations surrounding the abortion pill and the Rural Health Transformation Program. Daines on funding the Rural Health Transformation Program: Daines:Since you were first nominated in this role, it's been your goal to make HHS the gold standard of science. I appreciate your sincere commitment to that goal and the role you're playing in restoring America's leadership in scientific rigor, transparency, and public health. Before I get into a more specific public health question, I just want to follow up on the exchange you just had about the rural health care in our country. And Montana, I think when you think Montana, you think rural. We love that about our state. But I want to build on what you just said, Mr. Secretary, because there was a transformative $50 billion investment that Senate Republicans made in working with the Trump administration to strengthen health care across rural America in our working family tax cut bill. There has been $50 billion following a competitive application process, and Montana is receiving a $233 million investment from the Trump administration, the fourth highest funding award of all 50 states, to stabilize and modernize rural health care delivery throughout the state. Mr. Secretary, could you touch for a moment on the real change this investment will have on rural health care access, delivery, and outcomes in places like Montana as well as across America? Kennedy: Medicaid pays about 7 percent in total to rural hospitals. It’s about $20 billion a year to all rural areas in our country. Daines:Mr. Secretary, I met yesterday with our hospital administrators from across our state. They came in, CEOs, came into my office, and we were talking about enthusiasm, excitement they had about what's happening right now, as you just articulated and the fact, you're also going after the fraud that's occurring right now in these programs. The American people want the right people to help; they want the fraudsters removed and I appreciate your leadership on that. And that's delivering real results and outcomes for the American people. Daines on the need to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion pill: Daines:Back on the issue of safety, I want to go back to my earlier comment, and I want to continue the conversation we had around what HHS is doing to apply the principles of safety for the American people as it relates to the federal regulations on mifepristone. You've stated the FDA is conducting a comprehensive safety review, which they are, and I encourage you to see that review through completion guided by the best available data. Some of the evidence we already have today points to some serious real-world consequence as it relates to safety for women. We know about the outcomes to the baby. I'm talking about the outcomes now to women. In fact, there was analysis of over 865,000 mifepristone prescriptions compiled from insurance claims that found that 11 percent of women experienced a serious adverse event. That typically means going to the ER. There is serious medical care required within 45 days of taking mifepristone. That's 22 times higher than the FDA's long-standing estimate of less than 0.5 percent. In the first half of 2025, over 27 percent, in fact, of all abortions in the U.S. were chemical abortions, provided by online clinics. Will you implement interim safeguards as well as look at reinstating the in-person dispensing requirement until the full safety review is completed? Kennedy: Regrettably, Senator Daines, I cannot comment on that because of the litigation. Daines: Well, I have read that study. And the actual adverse effects are 22 times what the FDA had on the label. And so we want to see action taken because women are being harmed by mifepristone. Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins

Daines’ “Build More Hydro” Bill Passes U.S. House of Representatives, Heads to President’s Desk - Senator Steve Daines

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Steve Daines today announced that his bill to support American hydropower and increase domestic energy production passed the U.S. House of Representatives and now heads to the President’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law. The “Build More Hydro” bill allows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to approve six-year extensions for hydropower projects licensed before 2020. Representative Dan Newhouse (WA-04) introduced the companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. “The Build More Hydro bill will help revive critical hydro projects across the nation and increase our domestic energy production, and I’m thrilled to see it headed to the President’s desk. Energy security is national security, and this bill will help bolster our all-of-the-above energy portfolio while keeping costs low and the lights on for hardworking American families. I’m grateful for Representative Newhouse’s work in getting this through the House of Representatives and look forward to it finally becoming law,” said Daines. "Our Nation desperately needs more energy, and I am delighted to see the House advance legislation to the President’s desk that will build more hydroelectric dams. Once signed into law, this legislation will allow for the construction of nearly 40 projects totaling over 2.5 gigawatts of baseload power, improving grid reliability and lowering energy prices. I want to thank Senator Daines for his tireless work in moving this legislation unanimously through the Senate and for his continued efforts to build more hydropower," said Newhouse. Daines introduced S.1020, the “Build More Hydro” bill, in March 2025- read the release HERE. It passed the Senate with unanimous consent in July 2025. Daines and Newhouse sent a letter to Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson urging swift House passage of the bill in November 2025- read it HERE. Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins