Category: News Article

The Helena Regional Airport recently received more than $3 million in federal funds, which local officials plan to put toward some needed maintenance projects. Helena was one of 13 Montana airports to receive more than $8 million total in funding from the Airport Improvement Program under the Department of Transportation. U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester announced the funding last week.  About $1.3 million of Helena’s allocation was an expected entitlement, but the additional $1.7 million came through a competitive application process, said airport Director Jeff Wadekamper. “It was a request we’d had out there for quite a while,

Sen. Steve Daines sent a letter Friday to the federal agency that oversees nursing homes, asking about issues raised in a recent New York Times story on some poor-performing homes being backed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The June 24 Times story by Matthew Goldstein and Robert Gebelhoff noted 74 nursing homes listed among 478 identified in a recent report of having “serious deficiencies” have HUD-guaranteed mortgages. ] Daines asked Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) officials if it coordinates with HUD as it oversees the program known as “Special Focus Facility,” of SFF, for poor performing

An Indian Health Service pediatrician convicted of molesting children on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation could lose retirement benefits as federal officials weigh revoking the doctor’s honorable discharge. The U.S. Public Health Commission Corps disclosed on Wednesday that it is launching a board inquiry into Stanley Patrick Weber. In January, Weber was convicted by a U.S. District Court in Great Falls of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and two counts of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, all felonies. The charges stem from his 1993 to 1995 employment as an IHS pediatrician on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. He faces

Montana’s Little Shell Band of Chippewa Cree Indians inched closer to federal recognition Thursday, with the Senate approval. With Thursday afternoon’s Senate vote, the Little Shell are closer to recognition than the tribe has ever been, said Montana’s U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines. House action is still needed, but representatives have twice in less than a year supported recognizing the Little Shell. Montana’s delegation assumes the House’s past support means it will do so again now that the Senate is on board. “It was 84 years ago, 1934, when the Little Shell submitted application, working with BIA at

BOZEMAN – It’s not uncommon for new moms to find themselves in a race to find a private place to breastfeed their child or pump. But a new bill aims to require lactation rooms in federal spaces. The Fairness For Breastfeeding Mothers Act introduced by Sen. Steve Daines passed unanimously through the Senate on Wednesday. With bipartisan support, the bill now heads to the desk of President Donald Trump.  The bill requires a dedicated lactation room in most federal buildings, and bathrooms don’t count. The bill requires that the room include a chair, working surface and electrical outlet. The room

DARBY – Republican Sen. Steve Daines heard from Trapper Creek Job Corps employees about the president keeping the program open in Darby on Friday. “I was just a kid growing up in Montana like many of you have done and are doing,” Daines said at the event. “And it was an honor for me to take your message, your results, the work you do. I’m just a conduit to present that to the president and the secretary.” Earlier this week, it was reported that the Anaconda and Trapper Creek Job Corps Conservation Centers will remain open under the U.S. Department

After meeting with students and staff at Trapper Creek Job Corps on Friday, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines said that what he heard could be summed up in two words. Hope and opportunity. “These are students who are on a path now of becoming productive citizens and prepared for the 21st century workforce,” Daines said. “Some had literally spent time in prison and jail and are now getting a new lease on life. That is really a tremendous return on investment.” Daines was on the Darby-area campus to celebrate this week’s announcement that the Trump Administration would reverse course and neither

Struggling U.S. agriculture exports to Japan, which have cost Montana farmers millions in sales since the start of 2019, are a few months away from being resolved, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer testified Tuesday. Lighthizer, taking questions from Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., before the Senate Finance Committee, said his office was working with Japan to smooth out tariff troubles brought about by the United States’ 2017 exit from the multinational Trans-Pacific Partnership. Nations who stuck with the U.S.-initiated TPP are seeing tariff reductions in Japan that the United States isn’t. Montana wheat producers expect their 2019 trade losses in Japan

Montana’s congressional delegation made a successful bipartisan push Wednesday to advance legislation that would, for the first time, federally recognize the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. According to a press release sent to MTN News, Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester have stapled their tribal recognition bill as an amendment to must-pass defense spending legislation in the U.S. Senate. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), to which the recognition bill has been attached, must pass Congress annually to determine national defense appropriations. At this point, the logistics would safeguard the recognition bill’s passage. While the Little Shell Tribe has

Lawmakers pressed the Trump administration on Wednesday to respond with urgency in addressing violence against Native American women and children after they say two officials arrived at a key U.S. Senate hearing unprepared to take concrete positions on a slate of legislation. The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held the hearing in Washington to review five bipartisan measures aimed at tackling domestic violence, homicides and disappearances on tribal lands. The hearing followed recent pledges among Justice and Interior department officials to address gender violence in tribal communities as concerns mount over high rates of victimization. It also came amid