In The News

HELENA — Montana military veterans who were referred to health specialists in 2015 faced delays in getting appointments or receiving needed medical services nearly half the time, and those delays may have harmed four patients, according to a report released Friday. The Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General’s Office inspected the VA Montana Healthcare System at Fort Harrison in Helena at the request of U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines. The inspectors were asked to look at how often patients experienced delays in obtaining referrals — called “consults” in the VA system — and how those delays affected the

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, fielded questions from Montana residents during a “tele-townhall” phone conference Wednesday night, addressing concerns about health care, his cabinet votes, and environmental regulations. According to the senator’s staff, the evening forum marked the 14th time he’d connected with Montanans since winning the Senate seat. It came on the heels of criticism that he’d shirked constituents’ calls for a live town hall after controversial moves to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education and gavel down Elizabeth Warren on the Senate floor. But Daines was unfazed, and answered questions and criticisms with aplomb during the 90-minute session, hearing

BILLINGS – Healthcare and the Affordable Care Act were major topics at the tele-town hall meeting with Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) Wednesday night. The senator gave his thoughts on repealing and replacing the healthcare law. As Daines spoke on the phone in Washington, D.C., about 30,000 listened to the tele-town hall meeting, according to the Senator’s staff. He took questions on the phone for about an hour and a half. Daines said the Affordable Health Care Act has brought rising premiums, unaffordable deductibles, fewer insurance choices and higher taxes. He cited numbers from the Silver or Standard plan on the insurance

The U.S. Congressional Republicans’ repeal-and-replace bill that throws out core provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act preserves special provisions for Libby asbestos victims, Sen. Steve Daines’ office said Tuesday. Daines, R-Montana, talked with key Republicans over the weekend about the need to retain Libby-specific health care provisions as Congressional leaders prepared for the roll-out of the draft bill on Monday. He followed up with a letter to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, pointing out that toxic exposure from decades of vermiculite mining in Libby “remains an environmental and public health crisis.” A

BUTTE — Sen. Steve Daines’ office said the bill released by Congressional Republicans Monday repealing much of the Affordable Care Act preserves special provisions written into Obamacare to protect victims of asbestos-related disease in Libby. Daines, R-Montana, “was engaged in conversations” over the weekend about the Libby benefits with key Republicans in Congress, according to his staff. On Monday his office released a letter he wrote to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan asking them to preserve the Libby patients’ status. On Sunday, Lee Newspapers reported that in 2009 when the Affordable Care Act

As the United States Senate finally begins taking up joint resolutions designed to reverse a handful of regulations implemented during the waning days of the Obama Administration, it’s worth discussing the indispensable role the Congressional Review Act (CRA) has come to play in halting regulatory excess, and more importantly, upholding the rule of law.  While the merits of some of the regulatory actions targeted for reversal are certainly arguable, others lie so far outside the governing statutes that their reversal, either by congress or the courts, was almost inevitable from the day of their initial proposal. Last week, House Majority

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., has announced that he was recognized by the American Farm Bureau with its “Friend of Farm Bureau” award for his strong support of agriculture and his advocacy on behalf of Montana farmers and ranchers.  The American Farm Bureau Federation gives the “Friend of Farm Bureau” award to members of Congress who have led on issues critical to farmers and ranchers across the country, supported Farm Bureau issues, as demonstrated by their voting records and who were nominated by their respective state Farm Bureau.  Daines was presented with the award on Wednesday by the Montana Farm

Federal officials are putting sensitive materials in foreign-owned buildings, making them vulnerable to cyberattack and espionage, senators warned Friday. Their alarm bells were set off by a report that said the General Services Administration has been placing FBI agents and other “high-security” government officials in buildings owned by foreign entities in China and other countries. The GSA didn’t tell the tenants, according to the government report, so the officials aren’t taking addition security precautions. “Yet, in some cases the space is used for classified operations and to store sensitive data,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., wrote in a Thursday

Montana’s two U.S. senators again introduced legislation that would protect East Rosebud Creek in the Beartooth Mountains. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican, and Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, on Thursday reintroduced bipartisan legislation, Senate Bill S. 501, to permanently protect East Rosebud Creek under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, said spokesmen for the senators. The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Leslie Ziegler, president of Friends of East Rosebud, said the organization “greatly appreciates” the senators’ bipartisan work to protect the creek. “This area is a special place where many Montanans have