Daines in Senate Indian Affairs Committee: Complete the Fort Belknap Water Settlement, Support Montana’s Hi-Line

• March 12, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Steve Daines today spoke with the Department of the Interior Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Cameron in a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing. The two discussed the necessity of completing the Fort Belknap water rights settlement and supporting irrigation and infrastructure on the Milk River.

Watch the full exchange HERE.

Daines on the importance of the Fort Belknap water rights settlement:

Daines: The Fort Belknap have waited over a century to settle their water rights. In fact, they are the original tribe that led to the Winters Doctrine. They completed their settlement negotiations decades ago and have been waiting for Congress to do its job and ratify the Compact. Assistant Secretary Cameron, is ratifying an Indian water settlement an effective way to avoid decades of litigation, which would cost the government millions of dollars?

Cameron: Yes sir, absolutely.

Daines and Cameron discussed the importance of the Milk River along Montana's Hi-Line:

Daines: I want to focus on the costs of not completing settlements, especially for farmers and ranchers. Montana's Hi-Line is semi-arid, It's a drought-prone region of the state. Many people, when they think of Montana, they think of Brad Pitt with a fly rod, in A River Runs Through It. And yes, we have beautiful rivers and I grew up with a fly rod in my hand until Brad Pitt ruined it for the rest of us. When you look at the Hi-Line, what you're seeing here is spring wheat production by county. Our average rainfalls are in the 14-16 inches there. Further north up in the highlands, it's even dryer, 12-14 inches of annual rainfall. Compare that to Washington D.C. or Seattle, which, by the way get, about the same amount of rain. They get about 40 inches of rain. Montana gets 12-14 in the Hi-Line. It is the Milk River that is the life blood of the region. It provides irrigation for 140,000 acres and drinking water for 20,000 people. As you can see, the Milk River Basin is among the most productive areas for spring wheat in the country. The same is true for winter wheat and barley. The Milk River Basin is served by the Milk River Project, an over 100-year-old irrigation project that diverts water from the St. Mary River and carries it across the Hi-Line, the northern edge of Montana. But due to drought and aging infrastructure, the Project is breaking down and delivering less and less water to irrigators. You know what they say in Montana, whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting. That's really true. The Project already suffered one catastrophic blowout, leaving thousands with limited irrigation and drinking water. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars to repair. There's a saying- there's never enough money to do it right, and always enough money to do it over. And there's an example. The tribe is a senior water right holder. The Milk River Basin is overleveraged. Put plainly, there are more paper water rights than wet water on the ground. Without a settlement, junior water rights holders, like the farmers and ranchers, face a huge amount of uncertainty. When water rights work, it's the date when you receive them. The older the claim, the stronger and more senior the water claim. Assistant Secretary Cameron, there are tens of thousands of unresolved claims along the Milk River. If we move to litigation instead of settlement, farmers and ranchers across the Hi-Line could lose their ability to irrigate. My question is, what might the future cost of NOT ratifying the water compact be, especially if wheat and barley producers don't have settled water allocations?

Cameron: The implications are serious.

Daines and Cameron discussed the FBIC settlement:

Daines: I appreciate it. Adding insult to injury is our wheat and barley prices are in the tank. Our farmers are losing money right now, with higher input costs with fertilizer. It's truly some of the toughest times we've seen in farm country out in Montana that I can remember. One last question Mr. Cameron. In your testimony you said the Administration supports building off past models of success for negotiating settlements. A great example was when I and the Montana delegation worked closely with the first Trump administration to get the CSKT water compact finished back in 2020. How can I get your support for the Northern Montana Water Security Act and finish Montana's final Indian water settlement?

Cameron: I'm very familiar with the passage of that previous legislation. I can commit to finding a path forward.

###

Contact: