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

• April 29, 2026

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.

Watch the full exchange HERE.

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 4^th?

Burgum: 100 percent agree.

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!

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