Zinke sets out priorities before election

U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke made a stop in his hometown Monday to talk about a variety of topics, saying the issues currently facing the United States are “fixable.”

“I’m an optimist,” Zinke said when he sat down with the Pilot. “America, while we sometimes stumble, we don’t fall.”

Zinke, a former Navy SEAL commander, is seeking re-election as Montana’s only member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Republican faces Democrat Denise Juneau in his campaign for a second term.

Zinke was quick to say the election has become “vile and misleading” and the attack ads that have surrounded the campaign are enough to dissuade good people from running for political office.

“The elections have been so dishonest in their presentation,” he said. “We need people that are balanced and thoughtful to fill these offices.”

He said claims that he resides in California rather than at his property on East Second Street in Whitefish are false.

“For anyone to suggest that I don’t live in Montana, one just needs to look in my closest,” he said. “We’ve lived on the property for three generations. I’m not in Whitefish as much as I like — it’s a big state and I think I’ve seen every corner of the state.”

Zinke said that Americans have become disenfranchised by their government. It’s a feeling he aims to correct if re-elected, saying he represents all Montanans no matter their political affiliation.

“There is a deep distrust in the government,” he said. “In many cases the government has become the adversary rather than the advocate. The government has become faceless.”

The way to regain the American people’s trust, he said, is through being transparent. He said his office participates in a lot of constituent advocacy trying to help Montanans find the right government agency to assist them and the work can be a challenge even for those who know how to navigate government.

“We’re drowning in our bureaucracy,” he said. “The distance between people and their government has become too far.”

A priority, he said, is national security issues. He noted his support of the American Safety Against Foreign Enemies Act, a bill that would expand background checks on Iraqi and Syrian refugees wanting to enter the United States. He said America has always been a safe haven for those who needed it, but says that refuges entering the country needed to be vetted.

“I am not an advocate for open borders,” he said. “I’m not an advocate of amnesty. I am an advocate for following the law. We should vet the refuges.”

Zinke pointed to his work co-authoring the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2015 that would allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help fund wildfire expenses so the U.S. Forest Service doesn’t have to borrow from other activities, reduces regulatory review of collaborative forest projects and requires legal challengers of those projects to post bonds covering the Forest Service’s defense costs.

“It promotes collaboration,” Zinke said. “It addresses the 71 million acres of dead and dying timber that we have. It addresses re-aligning the forest fire formula so the Forest Service isn’t going to be penalized by the catastrophic forest fires.”

Zinke formed his own health care advisory committee, made up of doctors, administrators, and other health care professionals, he said to provide recommendations to him on health care issues. Zinke called for the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Health Care Act, while saying there is a need for frontier health care reforms. He said Montanans are working second jobs to afford health care and that shouldn’t be the case.

Zinke said in Montana the “one size fits all” solutions that often come out of Washington, D.C. don’t work.

“Obamacare probably had a noble purpose, but the execution of it has hurt Montana and it has hurt the people that need health care the most,” he said. “Government is going to be a part of health care, but government shouldn’t drive the decisions on what is best for the patient that should be the medical professional.”

Zinke called for better access to telemedicine, increased focus on preventative care and access to health clinics as a way to improve health care, particularly in rural states like Montana. He said both sides of the aisle of Congress will have to look at the current system and find a way to fix it.

Democrats have claimed that Zinke voted to open the door to transferring the federal government’s public lands to the states. It’s a claim he denies.

“I’m a Teddy Roosevelt conservationist,” he said. “To say that I want to sell or transfer federal lands is a lie.”

Zinke says he sees a need to address the National Park Service’s $12 billion maintenance backlog. The way to do that is to fix the country’s immigration policy that he says is costing the U.S. $297 billion.

Funding infrastructure needs for Glacier National Park is important, but he also says Glacier’s record visitation means the park is at-capacity and that will shift visitors to surrounding Forest Service lands, which need also need infrastructure funding.

“We need to look at the public lands around the Park to relieve some of the pressure, but also invest in the future of what it’s going to look like 100 years from now,” he said. “I’m going to introduce legislation to do a massive Forest Service and National Park infrastructure push — I think it’s time.”

Zinke advocates for reforming the Veterans Administration saying the Choice Program has been a “disaster” in implementation. He said veterans shouldn’t be driving three hours to get a blood test.

“You need to give more authority to the clinics,” he said. “We need to give the veterans choice, if the VA can’t respond in a timely manner. A veteran is not a number — veterans have faces and they served their country. You have to streamline the bureaucracy so the frontline has the flexibility and the authority to make these decisions.”

Zinke briefly touched on the presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Zinke endorsed Trump in May, but has come under criticism after he condemned, but not withdrew his endorsement of Trump after a 2005 video was released during which the Republican presidential nominee made lewd comments about women.

“Both candidates are flawed,” he said. “What I see are people voting against another candidate rather than for their candidate. That’s what the most unique in this election cycle — there is little enthusiasm for either [candidate].”

“No matter who the president is our country has the strongest military in the world, we have more natural resources than any other country and our people work hard,” he added.