NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT ACT--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Madam President, there is a lot that I love about my State, Montana. It is where I grew up. In fact, it is where--my great- great-grandmother came from Minnesota and homesteaded just north of Great Falls. It is where my dad and my grandpa taught me how to fly fish and to hunt. It is where I got to attend college, in fact, at Montana State University. It is where I went to kindergarten through high school--in Bozeman. In fact, it is where I proposed to my sweet wife Cindy on Hyalite Peak. It was about 7\1/2\ miles up and 7\1/2\ miles back. It was about a 15-mile day that day we got engaged, July 31, 1986. It is where Cindy and I raised our four children. In fact, speaking of children, it is more recently where I walked my daughter Annie down the aisle in Churchill, MT, last October. Montana is a part of me. It is home.

But what I am here to talk about today is something that Montanans like me love most about our State, and that is our public lands, because in a place like Montana, our public lands are a way of life. Our public lands are where Montanans make memories with their families, their loved ones, and their friends. Montana's public lands are where we take our kids on the weekends. In fact, they are where we spend at least a week every August off the beaten path in the Beartooth Wilderness. They are where Cindy and I will take a couple of dogs and take along our kids now, as they have gotten older, if they have time. If not, Cindy and I go off with our two dogs and spend time in the high country. We do that every summer.

Our public lands are where we grow up learning to love the outdoors, and they are where we still continue to pass on that outdoor heritage to our children and our grandchildren. Montana's public lands play a major role in what makes our State so great.

For anyone who has time and has been fortunate enough to enjoy the Big Sky Country's public lands, I am sure you would agree that we must continue to cherish and protect those very lands we love in every way possible. That is why I am thrilled that this afternoon the Senate is going to vote on a very important, bipartisan public lands package that includes some important provisions for Montana, such as the permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the protection of Paradise Valley. In fact, Paradise Valley is the doorstep to Yellowstone National Park, our Nation's first national park. That would be found in the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time in that part of our State. I still do. I love fly fishing on the Yellowstone River. In fact, when I was in high school, I loaded up the station wagon--in fact, I think probably the Griswolds' station wagon by today's standards--and, with a couple of my classmates from Bozeman High--we had our homecoming dinner before we went to the homecoming dance there in Chico, MT.

This package also increases sportsmen's access to public lands, which is something that is so important to the sports men and women of Montana.

This is a historic win for Montana. In fact, it is one of the biggest conservation wins we have seen in arguably a decade. It is what is going to help preserve our access to our public lands. These are the treasures of our great State.

I very much look forward to casting my vote this afternoon when we pass it here in the Senate. This public lands package is a product of years of effort. Over 100 different pieces of legislation have been put together from the local level, grassroots moving its way up, to our now having a chance to vote on that right here for final passage in the U.S. Senate. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same.

We are blessed to be home to so many public lands in Montana, and we must do all we can to protect them and ensure Montanans have access to these public lands.

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