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Montana’s U.S. senators issued press releases Monday announcing they are joining a bipartisan group of senators calling for the expansion of telehealth services included in response to the COVID-19 pandemic be made permanent. Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., both joined in sending a letter to Senate leadership calling for making the expansion permanent. The releases said the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security — CARES — Act contained provisions to expand telehealth across the country to help patients, especially veterans and people living in rural areas, access telehealth services. Provisions of CONNECT for Health Act co-sponsored by Tester and

Today is a great day to be an American entrepreneur. It might seem counterintuitive, with much of the country slowly re-emerging from months of physical and economic lockdown, businesses shuttered across the U.S. and some industries poised to never fully recover. At the same time, the attention of policymakers, advocates and lenders has never been more focused on small business owners. Entrepreneurs should make the most of this moment—not only for their own advancement, but to advance our nation as a whole. Whatever our economic recovery looks like, small businesses will lead the way. For that, we not only need

HAVRE — If ever there was a summer when hundreds of Montana’s Hi-Line farmers could use rain, it’s this one. An $8 million infrastructure failure on the St. Mary Canal last month will restrict approximately 800 irrigators who work about 150,000 acres from Havre to Glasgow to about half the water they normally use during a season.  The St. Mary Canal was built approximately 100 years ago to feed water from lakes Sherburne and St. Mary into the Milk River and make it possible for ag producers in arid central and eastern Montana to pull water and make a living.

WASHINGTON — At a time of national crises, the Senate has been able to come together on a topic both parties celebrate: the great outdoors. While the country copes with the coronavirus, an economic downturn and a reckoning over racism, lawmakers have reached bipartisan agreement on an election-year deal to double spending on a popular conservation program and devote nearly $2 billion a year to improve and maintain national parks. If approved by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, the Great American Outdoors Act would be the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century. The bill,

The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, came to Missoula on Friday to issue a wide-ranging memorandum that directs the Forest Service to “expedite environmental reviews to support active management” and “increase the productivity of national forests and grasslands.” Perdue was joined by Montana Republican gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte and a host of other officials and representatives from various agencies and industries, including the Montana Stockgrowers Association and a timber company. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, sent a statement of support from Washington, D.C. as well. The theme of the day was “cutting red tape” and “reducing

The U.S. Senate is moving toward passage of a major conservation bill. This week, federal lawmakers are considering the Great American Outdoors Act, which would provide $900 million annually from oil and gas royalties to conservation projects and would allocate $9.5 billion over five years to deferred maintenance on public lands. The Senate is expected to vote on the legislation soon. Montana Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester, both bill sponsors, have spoken in favor of its passage. On Tuesday, Daines stood on the Senate floor next to photos of the Yellowstone River and of his dogs in the Beartooth