{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/09/16/daines-on-fox-business-we-cannot-slow-down-in-the-race-against-china/", "Daines on Fox Business: \u201cWe Cannot Slow Down in the Race Against China\u201d", "2026-09-16", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "Senate", "MT", "Steve Daines", "D000618", "www.daines.senate.gov", "daines", "https://www.daines.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined Stuart Varney on Fox Business to discuss the latest on diesel prices and race in AI against China.\n\nWatch the full exchange HERE.\n\nDaines on diesel fuel prices:\n\nWe are farm and ranch country in Montana. We pride ourselves on that rich heritage. Look, the farmers and ranchers, they feel the pain at the pump. They feel pain right now with low wheat prices, barley prices, corn prices, soybean prices. But I tell you what, the farmers and ranchers, they\u2019re not into politics. They\u2019re pragmatic patriots. And they look at alternatives in terms of what\u2019s on the ballot. They recognize what\u2019s going on right now is a temporary disruption in supply and demand. Secretary Wright talked about the hit on that Saudi pipeline. The Russians have stopped any diesel exports at the moment and that creates more pressure, upwards pressure, on diesel prices. But let\u2019s not forget the last administration brought into this crazy climate insanity. They wanted to ban combustion engines, they wanted to ban fossil fuels. Our farmers and ranchers know that the alternative to going backwards to the Biden years and that kind of ideology is dangerous for our country. They see that this is a short-term spike in prices, but they know that President Trump and Republicans want to continue to build out North American and American energy supply. That\u2019s a sound strategy for the future. This crazy Green New Deal of the Left is something that will set us back a generation. So I\u2019m confident we\u2019ll have a good showing here in 2026.\n\nDaines on the Iran conflict:\n\nThe regime in Iran, they like to see a weak president. They\u2019d love to go back to the days of Obama and Joe Biden, weak presidents that did not have clarity in terms of foreign policy and making America safer. So, of course, they want to undermine President Trump and Republicans who believe in America first and making sure that America is strong. So, it\u2019s not surprising. I think the Iranians, the Iranian regime, not the people, but the Iranian regime want to undermine everything President Trump is doing between now and election day in November.\n\nDaines on the AI race against China:\n\nI spent some time in Hangzhou, which is a city that\u2019s larger than New York, that many have never heard of, but it\u2019s the epicenter of a lot of the tech innovation in China. Very impressive. It\u2019s important to understand what the competition is out there. We\u2019re ahead as it relates to the frontier models in AI, thankfully, and we\u2019ll continue to keep that lead as long as we don\u2019t put policies in place that will somehow slow us down. This is a race, Stuart. It\u2019s important that America wins that race. We are not as strong in adoption on AI. The Chinese are second in the world. We\u2019re ranked 24th by Stanford. But in terms of innovation, we\u2019re in the lead today. It\u2019s very important to win this. And this is why we\u2019ve got this big debate in Washington on AI. What is the right plan going forward? I\u2019m just concerned that D.C. is not capable of effectively regulating something it doesn\u2019t understand. We need to make sure we have strong input here, certainly from our best and brightest in this space in America.\n\n\u2026Slow down is a mistake. When you\u2019re running a race, last time I checked, Stuart, a winning strategy is not to slow down.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-17T09:52:05Z", "2026-09-17T09:53:00Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2026/09/16/daines-on-fox-business-we-cannot-slow-down-in-the-race-against-china/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9138551540672779, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}