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The Trump administration announced its intention earlier this week to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Policy, also known as the “Roadless Rule,” which restricts road-building, logging, and mining across 58 million acres of the country’s national forests.
The administration’s rationale was that the “outdated” Roadless Rule has exacerbated wildfire risks. In a statement announcing the policy change, U.S. Agriculture Department Secretary Brooke Rollins said that “properly managing our forests preserves them from devastating fires and allows future generations of Americans to enjoy and reap the benefits of this great land.” Fire ecologists agree that the U.S. needs to step up land management efforts to reduce the likelihood of dangerous conflagrations. But experts don’t think more roads penetrating the country’s protected national forests is the best way to do that.
Pat Williams, Montana’s Longest-serving U.S. House Member, Dies at 87
The Butte native, who was Montana’s last Democrat elected to the House, served nine terms from 1979 to 1997, including two as the state’s at-large representative. Williams was 87.
Williams was particularly proud of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act that assured workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected absence from work for the birth of a child, caring for a sick spouse, or adopting a child. Eight previous attempts under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had failed. Williams, on the House floor speaking in support of the legislation, called the previous two administrations “frozen in the ice of their own indifference toward improving the working conditions, the safety conditions, the income/salary conditions of America’s middle- and lower-income workers.” His remarks appear in the Congressional record for Feb. 3, 1993.
Daines, Sheehy Tight-lipped On Proposed Medicaid, Marketplace Cuts
As the GOP megabill nears a floor vote, Montana’s senators have ducked questions about how coverage losses could affect constituents.
When Ron Wiens looks at his hospital’s budget, he doesn’t see much flexibility. Wiens is the top administrator at Big Sandy Medical Center, a 25-bed critical access hospital about an hour northeast of Great Falls. Many of the hospital’s beds are filled by Medicaid-eligible seniors who need long-term care. The Medicaid application for one of those patients, he said, has been in limbo for almost three months. That delay stalls the hospital’s Medicaid reimbursement, putting the cost of patient care squarely on Wiens’ bottom line. Budget strains for Montana hospitals could become more common if the One Big Beautiful Big Act backed by President Donald Trump becomes law.
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