What Daines Says vs. What He Does: Public Lands Edition

In 2020, Senator Steve Daines positioned himself as a champion of public lands when he co-sponsored and helped pass the Great American Outdoors Act. The law permanently funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund and aimed to address the staggering maintenance backlog across national parks and public lands.

Daines used this legislation to bolster his image as a defender of Montana’s outdoor heritage but his subsequent actions have consistently undermined the very protections the GAOA was designed to secure.

Immediately following the passage of the GAOA, Daines stood by doing nothing as the Trump Administration issued Executive Order 3388. This order allowed state and local governments to veto LWCF-funded land acquisitions. By enabling local obstruction, the order stripped the GAOA of its power to protect public access, particularly in Western states like Montana.

Daines made no public effort to stop or reverse the order.

More recently, Daines played a key role in drafting budget language that would force the sale of millions of acres of federal public land. The provision is buried in the controversial reconciliation bill and introduced with no hearings and no public input.

While Montana was eventually carved out of the potential land sale after public backlash, it was Daines who helped craft the proposal in the first place. He neither opposed the overall measure nor challenged the underlying strategy. This sequence reflects a calculated effort to appear protective of Montana’s land while endorsing a national sell-off of shared public assets.

Daines has a long history of undercutting his promised public land protections.

In 2015, he cast the deciding vote in favor of a budget amendment that supported the sale or transfer of federal lands, reversing earlier positions and breaking campaign promises. He’s also supported multiple efforts to roll back environmental safeguards, including the Clean Water Rule and methane pollution limits. These actions directly weaken the protections that sustain Montana’s watersheds, forests, and wildlife corridors.

As a House member, Daines introduced the North Fork Watershed Protection Act, which passed the House but later stalled. Once elected to the Senate, he did not prioritize its advancement. When the opportunity came to finish the job, Daines allowed the legislation to wither rather than pushing his party leadership to act.

In 2023, Daines led efforts to remove Wilderness Study Area protections from several landscapes in Montana through the Montana Sportsmen Conservation Act. He argued this would improve access and management but conservationists warned it stripped away critical long-term protections and opened the door to fragmentation and development.

Taken together, these actions reflect a consistent pattern. Daines promotes public lands when it serves him politically, but supports or enables rollbacks and land disposals when he believes voters are not paying attention. His embrace of the Great American Outdoors Act was not a reflection of principle. It was a short-term performance designed to obscure a long-term agenda that benefits extractive industries and private developers at the expense of public access and conservation.

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Why Would Anyone Trust Steve Daines on Public Lands?

• Votes for the Great American Outdoors Act, then stands by as Trump guts it with an executive order. He signed the guestbook, now he wants to burn down the lodge.

• Claims to protect Montana’s land, but helps write a bill to sell off millions of acres of public lands nationally. Don’t worry, Montana, he graciously exempted you after handing over the blueprints to the robber barons.

• Talks up access, then strips protections from Wilderness Study Areas. Translation: access for bulldozers, not for recreationalists.

• Introduces watershed protections in the House, then forgets they exist in the Senate. Apparently, conservation has a term limit.

• Votes to fund LWCF, then supports budget cuts that leave it empty. Thinks conservation is just sending the check, not making sure it clears.

• Says he loves public lands, but votes to let states sell them. That’s like saying you love your dog and giving it to a meatpacking plant.

• Touts his outdoor roots yet legislates like someone whose boots have never left the boardroom.

• Claims to fight for Montana, then teams up with Mike Lee to liquidate federal lands. Pro tip: if you’re ever in a bar fight, check which side your wingman is actually swinging for.

• Pretends to hate big-money D.C. insiders, yet acts like a real estate agent for Wall Street. You can take the senator out of the swamp, but you can’t take the swamp out of the senator.

Montanans deserve a senator who defends public lands not just in headlines, but in every vote and every action behind closed doors. I will defend Montana’s public lands, not trade them for campaign checks.

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