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Republican congressional leaders are quietly preparing to pass a “clean” debt ceiling increase, according to multiple senior GOP sources — setting the stage for a high-risk showdown with rank-and-file Republicans this fall. Trump administration officials, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, are imploring Congress to raise the $19.8 trillion debt limit with no strings attached by the end of September. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan — well aware they need Democrats to pass any debt bill through the Senate — are on board, albeit begrudgingly so. But beyond the leadership, there are few Republican takers,

Authorities released the name of the firefighter who was killed by a falling tree while fighting the Lolo Peak fire on Wednesday. Missoula County Sheriff TJ McDermott said that 29-year-old Brent M. Witham of Mentone, California, died in the accident. Medical crews were called around 3 p.m. Wednesday after a firefighter was struck by a tree while working with a crew in the McClain Creek area south of Lolo. Efforts were made to get Witham down to a landing zone where he could be evacuated by helicopter. The Type I Incident Management Team battling the 6,500-acre lightning sparked blaze that’s burning 10

Some additional federal money is on the way to Lincoln Country to help the city of Libby continue asbestos clean up. Congressman Greg Gianforte (R-MT) and U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT announced on Wednesday that that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality has been awarded a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “The work continues to provide the people of Libby with a clean, healthy place to live, work, and raise a family,” Gianforte said. “This grant from the EPA will help the community in this ongoing effort.” “The community of Libby deserves a clean environment and this grant

Montana’s two U.S. Senators disagree with the decision to abandon work on health care to focus on other legislative priorities.  Tuesday’s announcement comes after yet another failure by the Republican majority to scrap the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. U.S. Senator Steve Daines, R-MT, has been a vocal supporter of “repeal and replace.”  Still he disagrees with the decision by his party’s leadership to drop health care for now. “Failure is not an option,” Daines says. He says a fix is needed because Montanans are being harmed by the increasing premiums and the financial penalty imposed for not complying with the mandate to

A bipartisan group of senators are calling on Congress to adopt security standards for for internet-connected devices bought by the government in a bid to further secure the nation’s computer systems from cyberattacks. The Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2017 would mandate that connected devices purchased by the government meet specific security standards if passed as lawmakers look to safeguard against cyberattacks spread by IoT products in the wake of a debilitating outbreak last October blamed on the Mirai botnet, a network of infected devices harnessed by hackers to cause large-scale internet outages in the U.S. and

To find an amazing example of Montana grassroots action, look no further than the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act. More than 360 businesses in Park County have united in the Yellowstone Gateway Business Coalition to protect the Paradise Valley between Livingston and Gardiner from large-scale mining development. At the request of the coalition, the Park County Commission and numerous individual local residents, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester introduced the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act four months ago to make permanent a two-year pause in mineral development on 30,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land. Part of this acreage is in Emigrant Gulch, where