Gianforte gives progress report on first year in Congress

In a year punctuated with political issues ranging from immigration reform to global trade policies, Montana’s lone U.S. Representative Greg Gianforte said he’s kept his focus on five key issues that affect Montanans’ everyday lives.

Gianforte met with the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board Tuesday, and said he’s been making the rounds to provide constituents with a progress report of his first year as a member of Congress. He is running for re-election and faces Democratic challenger Kathleen Williams in the Nov. 6 general election.

First on his focus list has been making sure he’s a strong voice for Montana, he said. Gianforte pointed to tele-town hall meetings held every month and an advisory committee he set up for key issues such as agriculture, natural resources and Native American concerns.

His office has received 175,000 inquires over the past year. “We try to respond as quickly as possible,” he said.

In May Gianforte was named chairman of the Interior, Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Gianforte has identified Montana priorities for the subcommittee, which has oversight jurisdiction over food and drug safety, energy policy, public lands, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior.

“It’s important the subcommittee review issues that affect Montanans, such as the federal permitting process for energy, timber, grazing and recreation,” Gianforte said. “Looking into National Park Service management and getting to the bottom of maintenance issues are also priorities.”

Gianforte said his second focus has been the economy. He pointed to low unemployment rates and wage increases, and said the tax bill passed in late 2017 had a favorable “bias toward families” by doubling the standard deduction and child tax credit. He said he talked to one single mother of three whose take-home pay increased $400 a month because of the tax-cut legislation.

Creating safer communities was Gianforte’s third bullet point. He said he is committed to rebuilding the U.S. military and securing America’s borders, and pointed to recent federal legislation that had the effect of shutting down many human trafficking websites.

He also listed care for veterans as a priority. He said the recently passed VA Mission Act of 2018 will go a long way toward greatly improving veteran access to Veterans Administration health care. The new law addresses in-network and non-VA healthcare issues, veterans’ homes, access to walk-in VA care and prescription drug procedures.

The bottom line, Gianforte said, is the VA now must work on wait times for VA appointments, quality of VA care and distance from a VA facility.

“There’s no reason why veterans can’t get care locally,” he said.

Gianforte’s focus list also has included protecting the Montana way of life. To that end, he’s been working on natural-resource issues, and was a co-sponsor of the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017 that failed to get Senate approval. That legislation would have included tools the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management could use to improve the health and resiliency of federal forests and rangelands.

He continues to support responsible natural-resource development.

“I believe we can protect the environment and develop natural resources,” he said.

Gianforte’s discussion with the Inter Lake touched on a wide range of topics, including his view on President Trump’s job performance.

“The president is doing exactly what he was hired to do,” Gianforte asserted. “I’ve been encouraged with his appointments … he put a farmer in charge of agriculture. I support the president.”

Gianforte added, however, that “we need to bring [Trump’s] trade negotiations to a close.

“No one wins a trade war. They’ve assured me they don’t want a trade war and I’ve pressed them to bring these negotiations to a close,” he said. “We need fair and reciprocal trade.”

Health care is “still a work in progress in Congress,” he noted. Gianforte said that while he believes America needs the safety net of Medicare, he is concerned about the continued expansion of a one-payer system. Expanding Medicaid, he said, takes money away from seniors who depend on Medicare. The single-payer health-care model tends to drive up costs, he added.

Regarding immigration, Gianforte believes the country needs a physical barrier along its borders, along with more border agents and electronic surveillance. He favors merit-based immigration that awards visas based on job skills.

By and large, “most people in Washington are there for the right reasons,” Gianforte commented. “I’ve been encouraged by the lack of animosity among members [of Congress].”

But he noted that “a lot of bureaucrats don’t understand our Montana way of life.”

Features Editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com