In The News

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was in Great Falls Thursday for an “agriculture summit” hosted by Senator Steve Daines. Perdue promised big changes at the U.S. Forest Service, which his department oversees.  Former Georgia Governor Sunny Perdue has only been Agriculture Secretary for five weeks. He told the crowd of mostly farmers and ranchers that where he comes from, trees are a crop that can be sustainably harvested. “We’ve got a lot of U.S. Forest [Service] land that’s not healthy. Part of that’s budgetary, part of that’s ideology and litigation and NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] regulations that we’ve got

New U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue spoke in Great Falls Thursday. Perdue suggested reforms for a couple of big safety net programs important to farmers. Perdue has only been on the job as ag secretary since the end of April, and part of his job is to help President Trump push forward a budget that calls for big cuts in the Department of Agriculture. Speaking to an audience of more than 700 mostly farmers and ranchers at an “agriculture summit” convened by Senator Steve Daines, Secretary Perdue said the cuts include trimming SNAP benefits, better known as food stamps.  “It’s

The Montana Ag Summit kicked off on Thursday at the Montana ExpoPark in Great Falls with a tribute to former U.S. Senator Conrad Burns.  Burns passed away on April 28, 2016, at the age of 81. U.S. Senator Steve Daines opened by announcing the creation of the Conrad Burns Ag Technology award, to be given every year there is an Ag Summit. U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Burns’ friend and former colleague, also spoke about his memories of Conrad. Senator Roberts invited Conrad’s wife Phyllis to the podium, where she spoke and took a picture with award winner Taylor Brown. Brown owns the Northern Broadcasting

The first annual Ag summit wraps up Thursday in the Electric City.  There seemed to be a lot of hope from the attendees as they look to the future. Whole idea behind this summit, was for our National Agriculture leadership to hear and address the grassroots people of the Ag industry.  A big topic was how farmers and ranchers can make themselves part of a bigger global agriculture community.Senator Daines reminded people that agriculture brings in over five billion dollars a year to the state.  He was joined by Senator Pat Roberts, the Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee and Sonny Perdue the US Secretary of

Perhaps the greatest benefit Montana farmers and ranchers took home with them from the Montana Ag Summit was the national attention it delivered and a greater awareness in Washington, D.C. of Montana’s importance to the U.S. farm economy. “We have two of the nation’s leaders; I would argue the nation’s top two influencers of ag policy with us here today,” said Montana Senator Steve Daines. “This is making a very deep impression on Sonny Perdue (U.S. Secretary of Agriculture) and Pat Roberts (Chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee).” Daines organized and sponsored the two-day event, bringing together what was probably the highest profile delegation of U.S. ag leaders

Anyone who has followed the hyperbolic debate about net neutrality has likely heard that the Federal Communications Commission is moving to “squelch competition,” “limit consumer choice,” “raise prices,” and perhaps even “destroy the internet.” At least, that is what some activists and crusading late-night comedians claim. But none of this is true. Rather, what the FCC did two weeks ago was vote to reconsider the agency’s barely 2-year-old decision to begin regulating the internet, for the first time ever, under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act. Why did the FCC begin to regulate the internet through a law designed

Over the weekend, Senators from five petroleum-rich states accompanied the U.S. Secretary of the Interior on a visit to Alaska. On Saturday, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, along with five other senators including Senator Lisa Murkowski, arrived in Fairbanks on a fact finding mission. Although the majority of the tour takes place in Alaska, the senators and Secretary started off the mission visiting a cutting edge liquid natural gas plant in Norway.  Secretary Zinke discusses why they visited Norway prior to Alaska. “We toured a liquid natural gas facility, which is on the cutting edge, so this trip was primarily

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is spending several days in Alaska on his way back from a trip to Norway, and has toured Prudhoe Bay as he makes his way south. News outlets were surprised to get official word of Zinke’s trip from Gov. Bill Walker, who broke the security embargo about the secretary’s trip on Friday, ahead of Alaska’s DC delegation. There was a mad scramble by Zinke’s security detail, Must Read Alaskawas told. Zinke and an entourage of senators stopped in Denali National Park to meet with park staff, and Zinke said he thinks the name “Denali” will do just fine, as it has for thousands of years. Then

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) authored a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee requesting swift consideration of the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 (S. 990/H.R. 2227). This is legislation to modernize government information technology, eliminate wasteful spending and strengthen cybersecurity. The letter was also signed by U.S. Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.). “In the time that has passed since we first introduced this legislation, the threats of hacking, espionage and cybercrime have only grown more real,” said Moran. “This month we saw a worldwide