Author: Reilly Lowery

Montana’s U.S. senators split Saturday on acquitting Donald Trump of inciting a riot intended to derail certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, was among 57 lawmakers finding that Trump did incite the deadly Jan. 6 attack during a rally protesting Congress’ certification of the Biden win. From the night of the election right up to the riot, Trump had insisted the election was stolen and suggested falsely that his vice president, Mike Pence, had the power to give Trump a second term by rejecting the results of the electoral college.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines was among the 43 Republican senators voting to acquit the former president. Daines had, after the election, solicited donations to help “stop the steal,” Trump’s false rally call to GOP supporters to reject the election outcome and keep him in office. Daines later moderated his remarks, saying he believed election fraud was committed, but not enough to change the election’s outcome.

Saturday’s vote was short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump, who Democrats sought to prevent from again running for president.

After the acquittal, Trump issued a statement, dismissing his second impeachment trial as a witch hunt and stating his “movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun.” The slogan has appeared on Trump campaign merchandise since 2015.

Tester issued the following statement as the acquittal became official: “I took my duty to serve as an impartial juror seriously and listened to the evidence presented by the prosecution and defense. Ultimately the House Managers presented a clear, evidence-based case that proved to a majority of my Republican and Democratic colleagues that former President Trump incited a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th that came within a hundred feet of destroying our democracy. I joined with this group from both parties to defend our Constitution by holding the former president accountable to the rule of law, and sending a powerful signal that politicians must be held accountable if we want our democracy to survive.”

Daines prefaced his remarks about his vote by first stating he rejected the radical false conspiracies of QAnon, an internet-spread fiction that Trump is battling enemies of a deep state controlled by powerful pedophiles and cannibals leading a sex trafficking ring. Popular with some Republicans, including GOP members of the U.S. House, QAnon was well represented among Trump followers who assaulted Congress to stop election certification.

Daines also rejected Trump’s insistence that Pence, while overseeing the certification of the electoral college outcome, had the power to reject the election results. Trump had falsely told supporters before the rally that Pence could reject the results. Not long after Pence insisted he didn’t have the authority, the mob descended on Congress chanting “hang Mike Pence.”

“I voted to acquit President Trump of a second impeachment because I believe the trial was unconstitutional,” Daines said in a prepared statement. “I do not believe the Senate has the authority to remove a former president from office who is no longer in office. Going forward, the focus must be to arrest and prosecute the domestic terrorists who broke into our Capitol, attacked law enforcement officers, sought to cause harm, and tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The Senate had voted before the trial began that it did have the authority to proceed with the trial, which had started with the House impeachment of Trump, while he was still president. Leading up to the trial, 150 constitutional law scholars had clarified that Trump’s trial post-term was not only allowed, but necessary.

America’s military retirees would not lose their healthcare as a result of new policy changes that took effect on Jan. 1 under legislation offered by U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT). “Our bipartisan bill will help ensure we take care of our veterans and continue to provide quality healthcare for their service to this nation,” Sen. Daines said. “I’ll always support and protect our veterans who have served our nation and defended our freedom.” Sen. Daines on Feb. 2 sponsored the TRICARE Retiree Protection Act, S. 156, with cosponsor U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to extend the grace period from 180

Montana U.S. Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines recently received new key committee assignments.

Tester, a Democrat, is now chair of the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee, which is significant for Montana’s nearly 90,000 military veterans. The state ranks third nationally for veterans per capita. Tester has served on the committee since 2007, but until now didn’t have the seniority to be chairman while Democrats have the majority.

Additionally, Tester was appointed chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, a key committee for Malmstrom Air Force Base and all military spending. Through the end of 2020, both Tester and Daines served on the subcommittee.

Daines’ presence on Appropriations was an exception to a rule that lawmakers not serve on both Appropriations and Senate Finance. Serving on both required a waiver from Senate leadership.

The current arrangement leaves Montana with seats on three primary money committees. Tester on Appropriations, Daines on Senate Finance and both lawmakers on Senate Banking.

Daines was reassigned to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which is not only key for banking, but also veteran housing. The committee deals with some trade issues, insurance and financial markets. Banking Committee members are also some of the largest recipients of campaign donations from the banking and finance industry. It’s also a committee on which Tester has served since his first year in office.

Both senators also serve on the Indian Affairs Committee, which is key for Montana’s seven American Indian reservations and the significant social issues like the missing and murdered Indigenous persons crisis. Education, health care, trust lands and other federal obligations secured under treaty with sovereign tribal nations are issues covered by the Indian Affairs Committee.

Additionally, Daines serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which deals with everything from oil and gas leasing on federal public lands to national parks.

Tester is also a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The committee is key to addressing the “digital divide” between urban and rural areas, improving broadband in rural communities for business, education and telehealth.

In the House of Representatives, as previously reported, Rep. Matt Rosendale serves on Natural Resources and Veterans affairs, appointments that align with the senators’ committee assignments.

Sen. John Barrasso said President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of the Interior has espoused anti-fossil fuel views and he and another Senator will oppose her confirmation unless they receive favorable answers to their questions. Barrasso said Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M, espouses “radical views” contrary to responsible energy development, he told E&E News in a prepared statement on Monday. “Her vocal opposition to oil and gas production on federal lands will only encourage President Biden along the illegal and reckless path that he has begun,” Barrasso said. “Representative Haaland must demonstrate that she will follow the law,

The U.S. Department of the Interior has rescinded an order issued in the final months of the Trump administration that critics say undermined the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a centerpiece of legislation that Montana’s senators helped shepherd through Congress last year. Then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued the order in November, requiring private landowners to get approval from their state’s governor and their county government in order to sell land to the Interior Department. The order also constrained all federal land purchases to the current boundaries of national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and conservation areas, and it put the Bureau

Republican members of Montana’s congressional delegation on Wednesday sent a letter to federal officials in support of changes to the Endangered Species Act meant to speed timber work on critical habitat. The state’s Democratic senator said he also supports the changes. The proposed amendments to interagency consultation regulations would reverse precedent set in a 2015 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision over critical Canada lynx habitat. Judges on the case determined that when “new information” indicates a land management plan’s direction might harm a federally-protected species, the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service must consult with the U.S.

Montana lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to adopt a rule change — filed in the days before the White House changed hands last month — that aims to eliminate a potential hurdle for forest management projects when endangered species might be affected. Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Matt Rosendale, both Republicans, outlined their support in a letter yesterday to top officials at the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department’s NOAA Fisheries. “The proposed rule will allow land managers and wildlife biologists to follow the best-available science for consultation. It will remove an ambiguity in current