Category: News Article

The Senate will return to Washington next month facing a breakneck schedule with a slew of unresolved issues, including healthcare, defense and the budget.  Republicans kicked a vote on repealing and replacing ObamaCare until after the July 4 recess, hoping to buy themselves more time to overcome the impasse between moderates and conservatives.  But the move adds another piece of legislation to what was already expected to be a jam-packed laundry list and a tight floor schedule.  The Senate will likely leave town for the weeklong break on Thursday after spending two days eating through floor time on a nomination

It now looks like a vote on the Senate Health Care bill won’t happen until senators return from their upcoming July 4 recess. Democratic Senator Jon Tester, who has criticized the bill, hosted a Facebook live town hall Tuesday night and fielded questions for an hour. He says the hardest hit Montanans are those in their 50s and 60s, as well as the working poor. “I think there will be a lot of arm twisting over the next few weeks trying to get people to vote for this bill. It does some pretty bad things,” Tester said. “It imposes an age tax on folks in

Montana’s Republican Sen. Steve Daines said in a call with constituents Wednesday night that Medicaid expansion, which now covers about 79,000 around the state, would likely end in 2019 regardless of a U.S. Senate bill expected to terminate the program by 2026. When Montana chose to join with 31 other states and expand Medicaid coverage to the working poor in 2015, the Legislature included a sunset clause that requires lawmakers in 2019 to reassess the program. Daines said he spoke Wednesday with state Sen. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, who helped craft the expansion bill, and Buttrey said he didn’t think

Republican Sen. Steve Daines has reiterated his invitation to Environmental Protection Agency’s top administrator Scott Pruitt to visit a Superfund site in Montana. Daines first gave the invitation to Pruitt in February at the time of Pruitt’s confirmation hearing. Pruitt, so far, has not taken Daines up on that offer. When he visited a Superfund site since becoming EPA’s top administrator, he instead visited a site in Chicago that is contaminated with lead. But in a letter Daines gave to Pruitt after Pruitt’s hearing before the Senate subcomittee on appropriations for the environment and other agenices Tuesday on Capitol Hill

The Senate’s health-care bill could go down in flames any number of ways. And after a nonpartisan congressional report estimated Monday the Senate bill could cause 22 million more people to lose their health insurance over the next decade while raising out-of-pocket costs for elderly and low-income Americans, it’s at risk of death by half a dozen mini fires. Here are the five factions in the Senate that are coalescing against this bill and could make it a very real possibility that it fails, perhaps even before leaders bring it to a vote this week 1) The no-repeal, no-deal faction Think of this group

Reaction to the EPA’s decision to end the ‘Clean Water Rule’ on Tuesday brought quick comments both for and against the move. Montana Senator Steve Daines said the Waters of the US Rule has long been a stone around the neck of private property owners. “Today marks the beginning of restoring private property rights while protecting our environment,” Daines stated. “Out of state D.C. bureaucrats shouldn’t impose regulations that hurt Montana farmers, ranchers and landowners. We can protect Montana’s pristine water without harming our agriculture economy and violating Montanans’ private property rights,” Daines continued. “I’m thrilled President Trump has heeded the

On June 12, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines announced $738,430.00 in critical funding for five Montana airports in Terry, Baker, Superior, Ekalaka and Circle. “These dollars play a critical role in keeping our airports safe and functioning, to continue to connect our state,” Daines stated. Daines secured provisions in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization for Airport Improvement Program (AIP) dollars which build and maintain Montana’s critical aviation infrastructure such as runways. He also has also engaged the FAA to expedite grants to northern states with short construction seasons. The funding is provided through the U.S. Department of Transportation. Mineral County’s

The cuts proposed to Medicaid under the Senate version of a health care bill meant to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act could hit Montana so hard the state would struggle to pay for priorities such as education and infrastructure. That’s according to a report released Tuesday by Manatt Health and commissioned by the Montana Health Care Foundation. Under the Senate’s proposed Better Care Reconciliation Act, Montana would lose $5.3 billion in federal Medicaid funds between fiscal years 2020 and 2026. That’s 40 percent of the state’s current federal Medicaid funding. “We’re putting at risk coverage for 75,000 Montanans

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally proposed Tuesday to repeal the Obama administration’s controversial regulation that extended the reach of the federal government over small waterways. Under the proposal from the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, federal officials would go back to enforcing a guidance document from 2008 when deciding whether a waterway is subject to federal oversight for pollution control purposes. It’s the first formal step by the EPA to fulfilling President Trump’s campaign promise to repeal the 2015 “waters of the United States” regulation, which Republicans and numerous industry groups have long argued would have subject farmers, developers

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers released a proposal on Tuesday to repeal the 2015 Clean Water Rule, the latest move by the Trump administration to unwind environmental regulations put in place under former President Barack Obama. The agencies are working to rescind the rule, known as the Waters of the United States rule, and reinstate the language of the rule before it was changed in 2015. The rule updated the federal Clean Water Act to define what waterways – including streams, rivers and other bodies – can be regulated by the federal government, stirring anger