In The News

BILLINGS- As Japan struck a multinational trade agreement in principle Thursday with the European Union, farmers in Montana watched from the outside with their noses pressed against the glass. Japan is a top three customer for Montana commodities, the state’s largest grain buyer in the Asian Pacific, where roughly 80 percent of Montana’s hard-red spring and hard-red winter wheat is exported. The deal with the European Union promises to sew up trade terms for one third of the world economy. It was not unlike the U.S. brokered, 13-nation Trans Pacific Partnership that Montana farmers had hoped would level the playing

Rep. Jacky Rosen is rolling the dice by launching a Senate bid six months after joining the House. If the Nevada Democrat wins statewide in the nation’s gaming haven next year, she’ll join a select group of senators who were promoted after their first two-year House term. Senators with previous House experience have on average served four terms, or eight years, University of Minnesota political scientist Eric Ostermeier said in an email Thursday. It’s also a fairly unusual, even audacious, move that carries significant political risk. If she loses, Rosen could be in the political wilderness after the 2018 elections,

U.S. Senator Jon Tester announced last week that 55 Montana counties will receive a combined total of $31.8 million in Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for 2017. PILT payments are awarded to counties with federal lands that are not taxable by local governments, but the lands’ presence creates demands for local government services, such as law enforcement and infrastructure.   As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Tester worked with Republicans and Democrats to secure these resources in the federal budget earlier this year, it stated in his press release. “PILT payments help Montana counties provide critical

Senate Republicans are working the referee as they try to salvage their shot at repealing and replacing ObamaCare. They are specifically turning up the heat on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), hoping to get a more favorable analysis on the next version of their healthcare bill. The CBO’s initial score of the GOP’s healthcare bill found that 22 million more people would be left without health insurance over the next decade compared to under present law. It was a terrible number for GOP leaders, dealing a blow to their hopes of winning over centrist Republicans. GOP senators wanted a better

Richland County will receive slightly more in Payment in Lieu of Taxes funds this year than the county did in the previous year. It was announced this week that Richland County will see $19,999 for its 54,206 eligible acres. Last year, the county received $$19,711. PILT are federal payments to local governments that help offset losses in property taxes due to non-taxable federal lands. The law recognizes the inability of local governments to collect property taxes on federally owned land can create a financial impact. The state will receive a total of  $31.8 million in Payment in Lieu of Taxes

A group of Republican senators are requesting August recess be canceled or shortened to give the party more time to make progress on its legislative agenda. The group, which includes Georgia’s David Perdue, Montana’s Steve Daines, Iowa’s Joni Ernst, Louisiana’s John Kennedy, Oklahoma’s James Lankford, Utah’s Mike Lee, South Dakota’s Mike Rounds, Alabama’s Luther Strange, Alaska’s Dan Sullivan and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis wrote Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Friday about the need to focus on five priorities: fixing health care, funding the government, dealing with the debt ceiling, passing a budget resolution, and improving the tax code. “Our current Senate

Members of Congress are home for their 4th of July recess without voting on the Republican’s health care proposal.   Senators Jon Tester, D-MT, and Steve Daines, R-MT, both held public forums over the past week to gather Montanans opinions on the issue. Tester says the current GOP bill is not the answer. So when asked if he is willing to work to fix this proposal or the current law, Tester says yes. If it’s the later, he suggests dropping the politically charged moniker Obamacare.   “Let’s call it the current health care system we have or whatever we want to

A group of 10 Senate Republicans are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to cancel their scheduled August recess from Washington in order to catch up on their legislative agenda on which they’re falling behind. The relatively small faction among the 52 Senate Republicans want McConnell “to cancel the Senate’s scheduled August state work period if meaningful progress has not been made on the following five priorities: fixing health care, funding the government, dealing with the debt ceiling, passing the budget resolution and improving our tax code,” they wrote in a letter to the Kentucky Republican Friday. There are