U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., is one of 59 legislators who have co-sponsored the measure, which was introduced in April 2011 by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah.

On Friday, one year after attaching his name to the bill, Rehberg defended the legislation on a statewide radio talk show.

The bill is not a federal "land-grab" as some critics have asserted, he said, but a means to improve coordination between agencies that are charged with disparate missions, and that too often clash in a manner that compromises national security.

"We have a food fight going on between federal agencies," he said, adding that the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are not cooperating with the U.S. Border Patrol, and calling the situation a "bureaucratic turf war."

"People of America need to know that this lack of cooperation exists," he continued. "They are hiding under environmental laws to keep our law enforcement agencies from stopping drug traffickers or human traffickers."

Former superintendents and employees at Glacier National Park and the district ranger for the Hungry Horse-Glacier View District of the Flathead National Forest, both of which hug the U.S.-Canadian border, say they have found a great deal of ongoing cooperation between their staffs and the Border Patrol.