Mm-hmm.

And those are the folks that you can put together these coalitions and these, these, uh, uh, associations where you can actually get things done.

And, you know, the, the things that you just mentioned on the, uh, water issues, you know, I, I, I go to DC, you know, every week we're in session thinking, "How do I best represent my district?" My district is very rural.

Water is a huge issue.

Sewer and water infrastructure is a huge issue.

Irrigation water, drinking water, all big problems.

So I try to, you know, address those problems for my constituents.

Explain what this does to make us less self-sufficient as a country to feed ourselves.

[cheering]

Here in Montana, we stand for law and order.

Here we take care of our first responders, we prosecute our criminals, and above all, we protect our families.

[crowd cheering] Now, I know this was brought up earlier, but, uh, I just wanna, um, increase this a little bit.

H- how many veterans do we have in the au- audience? [crowd cheering] How many first responders? Law enforcement, first responders.

[crowd cheering] To every one of you who has worn a uniform, every one of you, I salute you and I thank you.

[crowd cheering] Now, this election is about whether we remain a country built on freedom, personal responsibility, and opportunity, or succumb to forces usurping our freedom, and a government that tells us what to do, makes our decisions for us, where people expect handouts rather than paving their own way.

Yeah.

Tell us what's been going on there, why this bill is so important to it.

Well, it is important because especially, you know, you mentioned Glacier, but I brought my staff very recently within the last month down to Yellowstone Park.

And we met with the superintendent and we looked at some of the projects going on, like the bridge that they're building over the Yellowstone River right now, which is an incredible upgrade to what was there before.

And yeah.

is something that's going to be there for generations in the future rather than what was not working and was a dangerous way of getting around this particular valley around the river.

Having these upgrades not only add to the safety, but it's also something that's going to continue to create access for generations to come.

So it was neat going with the superintendent and looking at the project's but have happened under the Legacy Restoration Fund.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Today, Congressman Troy Downing sits down with us to discuss the Bear Paw Development Community Forum addressing health concerns of Montanans.

As I travel around the district, I make it a point to visit as many of our critical access hospitals, as much of our rural healthcare as we can.

And there's definitely, uh, a lot of disparity between the haves and have-nots, and that's in terms of, of funding, of terms of, you know, some of those facilities are 80, 85% Medicare and Medicaid.

Some of them have much larger payments from private pay and commercial insurance.

And so there's the struggles on the financial side, but one of the bigger struggles that I run into is the ability to recruit and retain professionals.

Well, and, and across the board from, you know, physicians, you know, providers, nurses, you know, across the board to recruit and retain employees at a lot of these, you know, absolutely necessary critical access hospitals and healthcare facilities.

And one of the messages that keeps coming up to me, because I've talked to a lot of folks, that they'll get applications, and they'll get pretty far down the application, uh, line, uh, to, of making offers to these folks that they want to bring into these communities, and they can't find housing.

Today, we sat down with Congressman Troy Downing to discuss his time visiting Havre and his trips to MSU Northern, and the different things he's learned.

First of all, thanks to Chancellor Brown for taking the time to show us.

We, we've been up there before, and I gotta tell you, that is a facility that Havre should be proud of.

Uh, it's a great place that is, uh, you know, for learning.

It's, uh, it's a beautiful facility.

And one of the things that's important is, uh, end of the day, we need to have people who know how to build and fix things.

And I think that's a deficit, and we need to really start pushing this trades education, and I think that they're doing a fantastic job there.

Today, Congressman Troy Downing sits down with New Media Broadcasters to discuss the North Central Montana Water Security Act.

I mean, obviously, this is incredibly important.

not just to the Fort Belknap tribe, but to the irrigators, to everybody in the area along the High Line.

And we've been pushing really hard, both in committee and also trying some other paths to get this done.

And so just a little bit of background.

So the Northern Montana Water Security Act, this is almost a billion and a half dollars that will improve infrastructure, economic development for tribal water users.

This is also obviously going to be about $300 million in funding to complete the rehabilitation of the Milk River project in Dodson South Canal.

You heard what the president said, that, that this bill was a big yawn, but is this not a direct example of what might actually help people? When, when would they be able to make, uh, this an opportunity for themselves?

Yeah.

Well, first of all, I, I think sometimes, you know, the, the, the president, uh, will say things that, uh, you know, that are not exactly.

I, I, I think he said that in the moment, but I think that the president does see a lot of the good things that we have in this bill, and obviously, the administration was part of some of this crafting of it.

So one of the big issues, just to pull back a little bit, that I run into across my district is recruiting and retaining, you know, folks for, uh, rural hospitals and schools.

Uh, one of the biggest issues we have is finding places for people to live.

We just have a, a dearth of availability of affordable housing.

I'm just wondering how you view this, and if you're worried that this resumption of kinetic activity in Iran pushing oil prices today is gonna bring those gas prices back up.

that everybody has, everybody wants to get something done.

You know, nobody comes here because they want to just, you know, that they hate the country.

I hate that kind of rhetoric.

This person hates the country, and that's why they're doing this.

It's just not true.

You know, everybody wants to get something done.

And for me, it's really important that the work that I'm doing, the work that I'm asking my staff doing, the work that I'm trying to get colleagues involved in, actually becomes something useful, actually becomes law, actually gets to the president's desk, actually gets signed.

Yeah,

Sir, good to have you on the show.

Hey, thank you so much for having me.

You know, you got to just stop and laugh about the irony of what you're just talking about there.

You know, we've got almost 85 percent of Americans support showing I.D. to vote.

And Mamdani is saying that that's racist, that that's going to disenfranchise all these folks.

And you can't even shovel snow in the city of New York without showing ID and having a social security number.

The whole thing is crazy.

Good news for your state, but really for the whole country, right?

...themselves and their, and their clients.

Yeah, and one of the things, obviously, this is one tool of, you know, requirements, a, a huge toolbox for dealing with this.

But, you know, I'm a former regulator, securities and insurance regulator, and trying to understand how AI affected insurance rating, how it affected, you know, these, these large, large industries, was always an interesting issue.

Because as soon as you get prescriptive, as soon as you put something down on paper, it becomes irrelevant because it's just evolving so quickly.

Yeah.

And so, you know, there's, there's, there's bills that I've brought where I have Democrat, um, co-sponsors that really we have very little in common, but we found some consensus where we both are passionate about it, and we get that through.

And I've got examples of that, um, in, uh, the financial services, uh, committee, where we got it through unanimously and got it through unanimous consent off the House floor.

So that happens.

But there's also a worry, right, that AI is gonna take, uh, some of these small business jobs as well, right? So, the congressman talks about how you've got to be able to adapt in an AI world, but then how also do you kind of combat this idea that it's gonna take jobs away as well?

Well, you know, it, it, we've seen this many times in, in humanity.

I mean, you see some new technology you think is gonna, you know, destroy one industry, but there's always something else that comes, comes out of it.

And, you know, AI for me, it's, it's so exciting, the opportunity that you have there, and it's also so scary at the same time in how you navigate this.

Because you see a lot of, you know, fraudsters and bad actors who are adopting and using this a lot more quickly than you see business and small businesses.

And they need to be able to keep up and understand this.

And so having educational, um, uh, tools out there for them through the SBA I think is incredibly important so that these, they have the resources to figure out how to use it and what it's gonna do.

Yeah.

That's a lot of work to get done before the end of the year or January.

Well, yeah.

And thank you for acknowledging the part that, you know, even though the government was shut down, we were still doing policy work.

We were still doing district work.

I still got bills into the hopper, you know, so we still did all of that work.

But one of the things I will tell you, I sit on the Financial Services Committee, and there's a lot of energy to get caught up, and I think we will get caught up, of really just doubling down on our hearings to get back to where we had originally planned on being.

So even though that time was stolen from us for completely political reasons, we're going to make up for that.

But do you think that it was enough of a lesson learned by Democrats that they won't try to push shenanigans next year?

... themselves and their, and their clients.

Yeah.

And one of the things, obviously this is one tool of, you know, requirements of a, a huge toolbox for dealing with this.

But, you know, I'm a former regulator, securities and insurance regulator, and trying to understand how AI affected insurance rating, how it affected, you know, these, these large, large industries was always an interesting issue.

Because as soon as you get prescriptive, as soon as you put something down on paper, it becomes irrelevant because it's just evolving so quickly.

Yeah.

And so, you know, there's, there's, there's bills that I've brought where I have Democrat, um, co-sponsors that really we have very little in common, but we found some consensus where we both are passionate about it, and we get that through.

And I've got examples of that, um, in, uh, the Financial Services, uh, Committee, where we got it through unanimously and got it through unanimous consent off the House floor.

What did they tell you?

Well, here's the thing is obviously having to work without being paid is tough for anybody.

I mean, some folks have reserves, some don't, and some actually count on that for making their mortgage payments, for buying gas, for buying groceries.

And so my point in going out there is to hear what was going on, the stories from boots on the ground.

So as at the airport in Helena and talking to the TSA folks and the ATC folks, But the biggest thing is to make sure that they understood that we we cared about their plight and we're hoping that we can get through this.

And just wanted to make sure that they didn't feel like they were out on their own on an island.

You know, this this will pass.

What's the fix?

What did they tell you?

Well, here's the thing, is obviously having to work without being paid is tough for anybody.

I mean, some folks have reserves, some don't, and some actually count on that for making their mortgage payments, for buying gas, for buying groceries.

And so my point in going out there is to hear what was going on, the stories from boots on the ground.

So I was at the airport in Helena and talking to the TSA folks and the ATC folks there.

But the biggest thing is to make sure that they understood that we cared about their plight and we're hoping that we can get through this.

And I just wanted to make sure that they didn't feel like they were out on their own on an island.

What's the fix?

The government's going to get shrunk just because Democrats closed it down.

Yeah, and that's the key point there, is the Democrats shut this down.

They've taken politics.

This is completely a political move, not a policy move, to shut the government down.

They wanted to cram policy into just an agreement to keep the government open for seven weeks.

so that we could go through regular order and actually do the business of the government.

But rather than that, they threw politics in there to completely circumvent this and throw the entire nation into disarray.

Is our military now prepared to take that head on as though it were a war? Because it pretty much

The government's going to get shrunk just because Democrats closed it down.

Yeah, and that's the key point there is the Democrats shut this down.

They've taken politics.

This is completely a political move, not a policy move, to shut the government down.

They wanted to cram policy into just an agreement to keep the government open for seven weeks so that we could go through regular order and actually do the business of the government.

But rather than that, they threw politics in there to completely circumvent this and throw the entire nation into disarray.

And now the entire country is paying the consequences of this, with folks not getting paid, uncertainty, folks worried about getting NFIP flood plans together while they're trying to sell property that they're developing.

Is our military now prepared to take that head on as though it were a war? Because it pretty much is.

What kind of timeline are we looking like, looking at here, and how is this gonna work?

Well, right now there's already an executive order from the President.

So what this is gonna do is it's gonna, you know, more, uh, you know, ma- make it more sustainable so it's not, you know, fungible in the future here.

So it gives some reliability and, uh, ability for, you know, the coal industry to, to, to plan ahead, which is incredibly important from any business.

But, you know, uh, just, just some kind of interesting things about this.

You know, the Powder River Basin is about 30% of the nation's coal reserves, so it's a pretty significant amount.

You've got the entire Montana delegation behind being able to mine this.

And, and sustainable too on its own? Maybe not every solar company is, but a good amount of them can be.

... trying to argue here?

Oh, I...

If...

And that's the thing.

I invite anybody to come out and take a look at this.

I mean, they've been doing this, um, in, uh, in Colstrip in Montana for, you know, for decades.

And you go look at that, and I, I challenge anybody to stand in the middle of that reclaimed land and tell me where it stops and where it ends, because, uh, it, it, it's actually...

If we are trusting the science, climate change is a challenge, not a catastrophe." Uh, I kinda wanna get your thoughts on that, and, and this idea of, um, global energy poverty and then kinda how Montana can play a role in that.

Is that what you're trying to argue here?

Oh, if- and that's the thing, I invite anybody to come out and take a look at this.

I mean, they've been doing this, um, in, uh, in coal strip in Montana for, you know, for decades.

And you go look at that, and I, I challenge anybody to stand in the middle of that reclaimed land and tell me where it stops and where it ends because, uh, i- i- it's actually, it's beautiful.

It's a beautiful area.

And so what's nice about this, by allowing us to, um, access, you know, these critical natural resources, you know, we're, we're making money, uh, in Montana, it's, it's incredibly meaningful for the tax basis, it's meaningful for the jobs it creates.

In the end of the day, anybody who's using the surface, uh, it goes back to, you know, exactly what we had before.

If we are trusting the science, climate change is a challenge, not a catastrophe." Uh, I kinda wanna get your thoughts on that, a- and, and this idea of, um, global energy poverty and then kinda how Montana can play a role in that.