Gianforte talks about issues and the process in Congress, D.C.

Six week after he was sworn in as Montana's only member of the U.S. House Representatives, U.S Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., made a few stops in the Havre area Wednesday as part of a listening tour of the state, stops that included the new Kracklin' Kamut facility in Big Sandy and a water facility in Chinook.   

Gianforte said the tour is in keeping with a promise he made in May when he won a special election to fill the U.S. House Ryan Zinke held and later resigned to become U.S Interior Secretary. He said that so far he has visited about 35 counties and logged 3,000 miles in the past month.

"I have been doing everything from meeting with timber mills to local ag producers, talking about the drought and visiting the site of wildfires," Gianforte said.

Gianforte, the founder of RightNow Technologies in Bozeman and a philanthropist for conservative causes, said that although he has never held office before, he feels that many of the qualities that helped him succeed in business are also applicable to Congress.

"I spent my life negotiating agreements and that is what we do there," he said.

Rather than stay in Washington, D.C., Gianforte said, each weekend he returns to Montana because he does not want to "slither into the swamp" of the D.C. culture.  

"To do this job and to be the voice for the people of Montana, I really have to know what people are thinking," he said.

Gianforte said while stories in the national media show a Congress consumed by what he said are "tweets, sideshows and other drama," Congress has gotten some work done since he took office.

Life in Congress

The House has taken up 12 different appropriations bills, four of which, mostly related to spending on military and veterans affairs, have already passed, Gianforte said.

Provisions in those bills include a 2.4 percent pay increase for military service members, the largest in eight years and a 25 percent increase in spending on military infrastructure and a $250 million increase  for rural healthcare for military veterans.

The House has also passed a series of laws aimed at addressing the issue of illegal immigration. One bill, Kate's Law, would increase penalties on people who have committed felonies after repeatedly entering the U.S illegally, he said.

A second law would cut funding for communities that refuse to enforce federal immigration laws.

The House has also provided money for increased security along the southern border, Gianforte said, including money for the planning and construction of a wall, a key priority for President Donald Trump.

The bills still need to be taken up in the Senate.

Gianforte said that since he has arrived, he has been reaching out to fellow house members on both sides of the aisle. He said that he has received warm letters from both Democrats and Republicans.

"Whenever I get one of those I respond by saying, 'When can we go for a cup of coffee,'" he said. "I think it is important we may differ on certain policy areas, but the American people hired us to do a job and I think it is important that we work together."

Despite what Gianforte said are "a lot distractions and some drama" being reported by the national media, he said he approves of much of Trump's record so far, including Trump's stand on unfair trade practices.

Gianforte said that last week he talked with U.S Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer about how the grading system now used for wheat in Canada automatically reduces the value of wheat when it is brought into Canada.

Gianforte said he often hears about the issue from wheat farmers in northern Montana.

"The Canadians are our friends, but we need fair trade, and grain grown here is the same as grain grown north of the border," he said.

Gianforte said he will keep raising the issue with Lighthizer so that Montana farmers can get a fair price for their product.

Wildfires

Major wildfires have raged throughout Montana this summer. Gianforte recently visited the sites of two wildfires, the July fires that ravaged The Little Rocky Mountains and the Lodgepole Complex fires. The Lodgepole fires have charred 270,723 acres, the Northern Rockies Coordination Center reports.

Gianforte said the fires have led to incredible devastation and disrupted the livelihoods of people.   

He said he was disappointed in a decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency denying Montana's request for a federal disaster assistance grant that would cover 75 percent of the costs of fighting the Lodgepole fires.

"That did not make sense to me having been there on the ground and seen it for myself," he said.

Gov. Steve Bullock appealed FEMA's decision.

Gianforte said he later talked to FEMA Director Brock Long and the grant was later approved.

Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., also called on FEMA to approve the money.

Because of the Lodgepole fire, a good deal of range land that will not be able to be used this season, Gianforte said, so he and Daines sent a letter to Zinke asking that retired grazing allotments in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge be available to ranchers affected by the Lodgepole fire.  

"And that is opening up grazing land that has not burned so that the livestock has something to eat,"  Gianforte said.

BLM opened the land to fire victims. Ranchers will be able to place their cattle on the allotments at standard rates.

Health care

Last week, several proposals that would repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, were debated and voted down in the U.S Senate.

Proposals ranged from a bill by Daines to  establish  of a single payer health care system - that Daines opposed but wanted to have a discussion about - to a complete repeal without a replacement plan and a so-called "skinny repeal bill" that would have repealed Obamacare's individual and employer mandates while leaving the rest of the law such as medicaid expansion for states in place.

All of the proposals failed.

The House narrowly passed a health care bill in May before Gianforte arrived in office.

Gianforte said Obamacare must be repealed, citing the increasing premiums.

"A mandatory program which is unaffordable doesn't serve the interests of Montana," Gianforte said.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana President Mike Frank said last week that because the company does not know if the Affordable Care Act will be in place, it is requesting a 23.1 percent increase in premiums next year. If it knew the system would still be in place, he said, it would have requested a 2.3 percent increase.

Any proposal should lower premiums, preserve rural access and protect access to coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, Gianforte said.

"We don't have that proposal on the table yet, and the Senate needs to do its job and get something passed," he said ,.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, said in a press release Tuesday that the Committee will hold hearings starting Sept. 4 to come up with a proposal to try and stabilize the individual insurance marketplace. Alexander said in the release any solution would be "small, bipartisan and balanced."

Gianforte said he does not know what the right process is to go about getting a bill.

"There are a lot of moving parts here," he said. "The Senate needs to do its job next and on the House we will engage and figure out what we can reconcile between the two before we get a bill to the president's desk."

Tax reform

After the failure of the Senate to pass a health care bill, a great deal of attention has shifted to proposals to overhaul the nation's tax system.

In April, Trump released a loose framework in the form of a one page document about what he would like to see in tax reform.

The president's proposal would among other things shrink the number of tax brackets from seven to three and lower the corporate tax rate to 15 percent.

Gianforte said the core problem with the current tax code is that it is too complex and that rates need to be lowered across the board.

America's high corporate tax rate discourages companies from creating jobs and investing in the U.S., he said.

"We have to look at the final package but spending more would be a difficult pill for me to swallow," he said.