Montana Deserves Better than Silence on Federal Cuts

Montanans are resilient. Our communities are strong. I know this because I'm a Montanan. I will never stop fighting for our schools, our farmers, our public lands, our elders, our Veterans, and the next generation.

As of May 2025, hundreds of federal programs have been frozen, gutted, or eliminated in Montana. This is crippling our economy and exposing our people.

The Trump administration’s cuts have slashed everything from health clinics to wildfire response, tribal education to scientific research. These were not accidents. They were choices. What they reveal is a government willing to abandon rural states like ours and a senator who refuses to lift a finger to stop it.

Steve Daines has done nothing. No defense of Montana. No objection to the president's’s sabotage. Just silence.

Federal dollars fund nearly half of Montana’s state budget. They power everything from our food banks to mental health services, school lunches to wildfire science labs. Today, those funds are vanishing. Our tax dollars are being siphoned off to pay for a bloated Mar-a-Lago security detail while Daines stands by, nodding with a goofy grin.

Entire programs have already been gutted:

• 25 scientists laid off in Hamilton.

• $28 million in public health funds frozen.

• 76,000 kids lost summer grocery support.

• Over 400 federal land management jobs eliminated.

• Tribal college losses of over $7 million in USDA grants.

• Senior centers, food pantries, and VA clinics left stranded.

This is just the beginning. Hundreds of specific cuts, freezes, non-reimbursements and pauses are documented across every region of our state, across every economic and social sector. We’ve compiled a longer list here but even this exhaustive compilation is not comprehensive.

The scope of these sweeping, indiscriminate cuts is nearly too broad to imagine.

This is not conservative budgeting. This is deliberate sabotage. Steve Daines is part of it.

In every case, Steve Daines had a choice: fight for Montana or fall in line behind Trump. He chose the latter. He chose submission. He chose political survival over the survival of his own state.

Daines has overstayed his welcome in Montana. Call him: (202) 224-2651. Tell him to fight for us or step aside for someone who will.