Senators: Montana benefits included in COVID relief, omnibus spending bill

Montana’s U.S. senators Monday touted provisions in a COVID-19 relief bill and an omnibus spending bill that includes the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact.

The bills passed also include funding for Amtrak.

The $900 billion COVID-19 bill is a scaled-down version of proposals that have been in the works since spring but stalled in Congress. Democrats wanted a larger bill that provided more relief to groups like consumers and people who had lost their jobs as well as state and local governments, while Republicans pushed for a smaller bill, warning of rising federal deficits.

Both Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont, and Steve Daines, R-Mont., praised the bill that is on the way to the president’s desk for his signature.

“For months, I’ve pushed leadership on both sides of the aisle to negotiate an economic stimulus package that will put our economy back on track and get Montanans back to work, and today Congress listened to Montana common sense,” Tester said in a release sent out before the Senate vote. “No one got everything they wanted in this package, but it’s a bipartisan compromise that provides targeted support for Montana small businesses and folks who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and it will help get vaccines to folks in rural America quickly and effectively. I will keep working across the aisle to aggressively hold the federal government accountable so that relief gets into the hands of Montana families as soon as possible.”

“This bipartisan targeted COVID-19 relief package is going to help Montana small businesses, workers, families, health care heroes, schools, tribes and farmers and ranchers,” Daines said in a release after the vote. “It also provides billions of dollars for vaccine manufacturing and distribution which is critical to ending this pandemic once and for all. This has been a tough year for all Montanans, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We will get through this.”

The Senate passed the bill Monday in a 92-6 vote.

The House of Representatives passed the bill earlier Monday, 359-53.

The bill provides a lengthy list of funding and services, including a $600 stimulus payment to most Americans and a temporary $300-a-week supplemental jobless benefit as well as extends unemployment benefits to self-employed individuals, gig workers and people who have exhausted their state benefits.

It also includes funds Daines and Tester fought for to provide support to live entertainment venues hit by the pandemic, provides funds for the Paycheck Protection Program, extends deadlines for use of the Coronavirus Relief Fund for states, cities and tribes and provides additional funds for grants to states to support contact tracing, COVID-19 testing, and mitigation efforts to control the virus.

The bill also provides funds for telehealth programs, to Indian Health Services for vaccines, testing and tracing, community health and health care provider support; funds for diresct support to farmers and ranchers and funds to support education, child care providers as well as funds to support subtance abuse and mental health treatment and prevention.

The bill also allocates funds to provide vaccinations and therapeutic treatments.

And, Daines said, in addition to $1 billion in emergency relief for Amtrak to prevent further reductions in service and furloughs of employees, the bills also inlcude $1.3 in Amtrak funding separate from the emergency relief, and also convert an unused $10 billion loan to the U.S. Postal Service into a grant.

And the massive omnibus spending bill, a $1.4 trillion package that funds the federal government through September, included a package that addresses a tribal water rights issue that has been in the works for decades.

The Montana Water Rights Protection Act ratifies the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water compact, which was approved by the state in 2015.

The bill, crafted by Daines and sponsored by Tester and in the House by Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont, the state’s governor-elect, grants CSKT specific water rights while permanently relinquishing 97 percent of the tribes’ water rights claims across the state, including across north-central Montana.

“I cannot express how much we appreciate the hard work that the Montana congressional delegation put into this bill and now having it signed into law,” CSKT Chairwoman Shelly R. Fyant said in a release. From Sen. Tester’s initial introduction of the bill four years ago, to Sen. Daines’ introduction, amendments and work with the Trump Administration this year and to both of our senators urging their respective leaders to include the bill in the omnibus appropriations bill, and to Congressman Gianforte’s work with the minority leader in the House, all played pivotal roles and the residents of Montana should be thankful for their efforts.  We certainly are grateful.  We also express our appreciation to the many agriculture and conservation groups across Montana and even across the country who also helped advocate for passage of this truly historic and important bill.”

“After years of hard work, the U.S. Senate just passed our bipartisan bill that permanently resolves the century-long CSKT water dispute, and will soon become law,” Daines said in the release. “Without our bill, thousands of Montanans would be forced into very expensive litigation and our ag economy would’ve taken over a one billion dollar hit. That’s why we’ve worked so hard to pass our bill that protects the water rights of all Montanans, saves taxpayer dollars, creates jobs, modernizes rural infrastructure projects, protects Montana agriculture and prevents very costly litigation. This is a win for all Montanans.”

“This victory has been decades in the making, and is a huge win for Montana taxpayers, ranchers, farmers, and the Tribes,” Tester said in the release. “Water is among our most valuable resources, and ratifying this Compact honors our trust responsibilities, creates jobs and invests in infrastructure while providing certainty to water users everywhere. I’m thankful we were able to work together to get this critical legislation across the finish line.”

“I am glad we were able to get this done to bring certainty to Montana’s farmers, ranchers, the Salish and Kootenai tribes, and all the water users across the state,” Gianorte said in the release. “Thank you to my colleagues in the Senate for their work on this legislation.”