Jon Tester: “I want to thank Senator Daines for all the effort he put into this legislation, the Fort Belknap Indian Community Water…”

“I want to thank Senator Daines for all the effort he put into this legislation, the Fort Belknap Indian Community Water Rights Settlement Act. It has been a long time coming, and I want to take a moment to acknowledge the current leader of the Fort Belknap Indian Community, President Stiffarm. President Stiffarm is a courageous leader, and he deserves a tremendous amount of credit for bringing this bill to the moment we are at today. This bill was first introduced by me in 2012. The bipartisan version that we are voting on today is the result of years of negotiation between the Tribe, local elected officials, State legislators, Federal Agencies, and other stakeholders that hammered out a fair compromise that honors the trust and treaty responsibilities while guaranteeing water certainty to all water users in North Central Montana through the rehabilitation of the Milk River Project. Look, I am a farmer, and I know how critical water is for the health of communities, for agriculture, and for economic growth. Water is necessary for our crops, for our businesses, for our homes. We all rely on it. For the Fort Belknap Indian Community the work started on this over 100 years ago. In the Senate, we have been debating moving this water settlement forward for years, and, today, we can make it happen.…”