Category: News Article

In less than two weeks, Montana small businesses have received nearly $1.3 billion in federal aid to keep employees on payroll and out of unemployment. The U.S. Small Business Administration issued state-level numbers Tuesday, revealing that 10,372 Montana business had been approved for loans totaling $1.293 billion though Monday. All told, the SBA has spent $247.5 billion since the Paycheck Protection Program launched April 3. Congress had approved $349 billion at the end of March. It is now seeking to add another $200 billion. “This program is critical to keep Montana small businesses open and their workers employed,” Sen. Steve

March in Montana: In like a lion, out like a dude in the unemployment line. There were more than 31,000 Montanans with unemployment payment requests on Sunday, April 12, the highest single-day number since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The numbers tend to spike every seven days, but the weekly high point before the arrival of the pandemic was rarely higher than 5,500. Since all but essential businesses shut down and people began staying home under order Montana’s governor, the number of people seeking unemployment has been extraordinary. “Between March 16 and April 7, 76,042 payments were issued, accounting

BELGRADE — The Bozeman-Yellowstone International Airport sat largely empty when Sen. Steve Daines and his wife, Cindy, arrived on Tuesday to give lunch to the National Guard members stationed there. The National Guard has been screening and checking the temperatures of passengers at Montana airports and rail stations for the past few weeks. They have been working without the benefits many other federal employees receive. Daines, along with Sen. Jon Tester and Rep. Greg Gianforte, is hoping to change that. “While many of us are working out of our homes, our National Guard members and our health care heroes are all on

BOZEMAN — The Montana National Guard is at the Bozeman International Airport making sure nobody is coming through who is sick, but today they got an unexpected visitor. “We’re screening passengers who are incoming making sure they’re not bringing home any symptoms of COVID-19,” said Drew Wajer, a technical sergeant with the Montana Air National Guard Keeping COVID-19 out of Montana is no easy task. The Montana National Guard has been hard at work since the beginning of April and today they had a special delivery man who came to show his support. That’s right, it was Senator Steve Daines.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines has been bringing good news to Montanans every chance he gets. Amid disheartening stories surrounding the coronavirus across Montana, Sen. Daines brought catered lunch to the state’s National Guard troops serving at the Bozeman airport. The meals, he stated, were an expression of appreciation for protecting Montana communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Montana’s U.S. senator also shared two big National Guard announcements. “It’s an honor to be here today to deliver some free lunches to our Montana National Guard members who are here in the front lines, the Bozeman airport,” Sen. Daines stated in a press

Seven Republican senators are demanding answers from the World Health Organization surrounding its “role in helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up information regarding the threat of the Coronavirus.” “Ahead of an anticipated congressional hearing, we write today to request information regarding the WHO’s failed and delayed response to the Coronavirus,” the senators wrote in a letter Tuesday addressed to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Information demanded from the senators includes when the WHO first knew about the spread of a potential “SARS-like virus” in China, who at the WHO was in charge of coordinating with the Chinese government on its response

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Monday, urging him to take executive action to strengthen America’s medical and pharmaceutical supply chain. “The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear how relying upon China for medicine, or essential medical equipment and components is detrimental to our national security and endangers public health,” Daines wrote in his letter to President Trump. “It is critically important to ensure that legislation is fully implemented as quickly as possible and that the U.S. continues to be the world leader in biomedicine, pharmaceutical development, and medical innovation,” he added. Daines’ letter to President Trump follows

Senator Steve Daines (R., Mont.) asked President Trump to use “executive powers and existing authorities” as part of an effort to reinforce domestic pharmaceutical supply chains in the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus. “Moving forward, it is important that we incentivize innovation and the development of essential medical supplies and equipment in the U.S. in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Daines wrote in the Friday letter, adding that “ceding this position of global leadership to China” would “impair our ability to combat the current or future public health crises.” The outbreak of the coronavirus has prompted a backlash against U.S. reliance on

Julian and Nicholas MacKay needed to get home to Bozeman. The brothers grew up here, but have lived on and off in Russia for more than a decade, studying ballet and now working there. They usually make trips to Montana in the summer when they get time off to see their parents, Gregory and Teresa. Last year, Gregory was diagnosed with cancer. A few weeks ago, his condition began to worsen. Julian, 22, said he and Nicholas knew they needed to see their dad “to say goodbye and to say thank you.” And then the world shut down. International and

By Wednesday, Montana banks had made about $500 million in loans to about 5,300 small businesses as part of a new federal program that began April 3. The federal government no longer releases state-level data on the initiative — called the paycheck protection program — which provides loans to businesses to help them remain open and avoid layoffs as they grapple with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. “We have been asked not to provide local data yet,” said Brent Donnelly, deputy director for the Montana office of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the federal agency overseeing the paycheck protection program.