North Fork protection needs straight vote
By Mac Minard
North Fork protection passed the House but fell short in the Senate — for the wrong reasons.
The North Fork Watershed Protection Act is a bipartisan legislative effort that started with former Sen. Max Baucus in 1974, and represents locally driven efforts to protect the historic and majestic North Fork area in the Flathead Valley. The legislation has tremendous support within the outdoor community and has received endorsements from various groups concerned with land management decisions and conservation efforts.
Rep. Steve Daines joined the effort last year, and introduced a companion bill in the House. A few months ago, in what was nothing short of a herculean effort, freshman congressman Daines ushered the North Fork Watershed Protection Act through the House with strong bipartisan support — a huge milestone. The House passage of North Fork Watershed Protection Act, which has been around for several decades, represented the first time the bill passed either chamber of Congress.
However, two weeks ago, this important bill was blocked in the Senate by what can only be described as an election-year political stunt.
Montana’s two U.S. senators, John Walsh and Jon Tester, who also support this legislation, used a tactic in the Senate called “unanimous consent” that caused this bill to fail. Under these rules, the full support of the Senate — that’s 100 Senators — is required to pass legislation. During the vote, three senators opposed the bill — and under the rules that Walsh and Tester chose, the bill failed to pass.
The unfortunate reality is that if Walsh and Tester had brought this legislation through a regular procedural vote, as Rep. Daines did in the House, it would be on its way to President Obama to be signed into law. There is no reason that Sens. Walsh and Tester could not get their own party leadership — who control the Senate calendar — to allow this bill the vote it deserves.
Now we hear the claims from our two senators that the “other” political party is to blame. Is this really the leadership we hope to see from our senators?
What is abundantly clear is that Sens. Walsh and Tester — one a new guy running for election and the other a seasoned veteran of the Senate — deliberately jeopardized the future of bipartisan legislation to score a few, albeit negative, political points against the Republicans.
By putting this bill up for unanimous consent, a failed tactic already tried by Sen. Baucus, is it any surprise that their approach backfired? Unfortunately, the only “real” tactic used was the sacrifice of the North Fork to place blame on a select few. That is bad government and not how Montanans expect our elected officials in Washington to act.
As a Montanan and U.S. citizen I am fed up with these partisan antics. My message, shared by many other Montanans, to Sens. Tester and Walsh, is take the gift Rep. Daines gave you and use your party’s Senate majority to get this bill through the system. Enough with the political antics and blaming others, when as U.S. senators who are in the majority you are in control of this issue.
Most Montanans do not care if the Democrats or the Republicans get credit for passing the North Fork Watershed Protection Act. We care that this wonderful geographic area and its resources are available to all for generations to come. Let’s not allow election-year political games to get in the way of that.
Mac Minard, of Clancy, is the executive director of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association.