Montana wilderness bill a product of last-minute horse-trading (NDAA); Senate vote this week

Years of legislative wrangling squeezed down to hours of last-minute negotiating to get a bundle of Montana land bills into the National Defense Authorization Act last week. “We were not sure what was going to be in the package until 11 p.m. Tuesday night,” Rep. Steve Daines, R-Montana, said Friday. “There’s a lot of pieces in that package. It was late in the game before we could see what was going on.” For Montana Democratic senators Jon Tester and John Walsh, the legislative work started in October. But the final horse-trading took place just days before all three members of the congressional delegation stood together to announce their achievement on Wednesday. And even after they shook hands, other national forces threatened to pull the omnibus apart before it can reach President Barack Obama's desk. “There are folks here that are still playing games,” Tester said Friday. “But we hope we can get this across the finish line.” The National Defense Authorization Act authorizes $495.6 billion in Pentagon discretionary spending and $63.7 billion in overseas contingency operations. Those dollars go to things like developing the F-35 fighter jet, maintaining nuclear weapons, operating aircraft carriers and paying military personnel. That makes it “must-pass” legislation. Tester said two months ago, a group of Western state senators decided to combine all the public land management bills that had relatively wide support and amend the package to something that had to pass in the last days of the session. The defense authorization act was the chosen pony. The 70 smaller bills represent the most significant public lands management progress since the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009...more