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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.

U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester have announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be providing $111,503,248 million for Montana hospitals and providers during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, a portion of this funding will go towards covering costs of uninsured patients for coronavirus related care. “This is about ensuring we have the critical resources needed to provide our hospitals and healthcare professionals on the front lines the tools they need to combat the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic,” Daines said. “It is one of my top priorities to protect public health and I will continue working

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said during a telephone town hall Thursday that he’s heard concerns from small business owners that the Payroll Protection Program will run out of money. He said the program still has money for now, but he shares this concern given that the program has given out 5,300 loans to Montana businesses since Tuesday. “We need to get ahead of that… this is really critical to our small businesses,” he said. Daines touted the accomplishments of Montana’s smaller financial institutions and their handling of new loan programs. “Many of these community banks and credit unions rose

Sen. Steve Daines sat down with MTN News for a remote interview from his home office on Friday. Watch MTN’s Kaitlin Corbett and Sen. Daines talk about financial relief efforts underway to help small businesses and workers across Montana.