In The News

Republicans on a Senate appropriations panel challenged the head of the Interior Department Wednesday on a host of rules and energy assessments the agency is undertaking. During a hearing on the agency’s 2017 budget request, members were most concerned about regional issues, including regulations for offshore drilling in the Gulf and a pause in the federal coal leasing program. “The stakes are a lot higher today than they may have been in the past,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said, arguing the pause on new coal leases on federal land would hurt the economy in parts of his state, where coal

Montana Senator Steve Daines is calling for changes in the Veterans Affairs system. A recent discussion held in Bozeman largely centered around the VA Bonus Accountability Act, which Daines and other senators are working to pass. The measure is designed to hold the VA accountable and keep under performing employees from receiving bonuses. “We’re mobilizing forces here and you know veterans know how to mobilize., that we can move forward here with changes in the VA, to move this VA accountability act forward, that puts accountability into the VA,” Daines said. “[It] allows hiring and firing these mid level managers that aren’t doing their jobs. There

After a nearly 40-year absence, Amtrak may resume making Culbertson one of its stops along the Empire Builder route. “It’s another service for the community,” Culbertson Mayor Gordon Oelkers said, adding it was estimated to generate 7,000 riders, with some of them being Canadians. He said they have the blessing of Amtrak and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, which owns the line. However, a BNSF official contacted late Friday afternoon was not immediately able to confirm. All that’s needed is a depot. “The track is good and the signals are good,” he said. It’s hoped the federal government can provide

Capital High senior Robert McCarvel has received an appointment to the U.S. Army’s West Point Military Academy. McCarvel’s appointment came from Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines, and Representative Ryan Zinke, with Daines making the initial call to the school, according to Capital football coach Kyle Mihelish. Pause Current Time0:00 / Duration Time0:00 Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% 0:00 Fullscreen 00:00 Unmute A 6-foot-1, 190-pound, three-year letterman with the Bruin football team, McCarvel was a 2015 honorable mention All-State tight end. He was also tabbed an alternate for the East-West Shrine Game. As a member of the Helena Reps baseball team

The Interior Department’s three-year moratorium on new coal leases on federal land could be longer than three years, Secretary Sally Jewell told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday. The length of the coal-lease freeze will depend on how long it takes the department to conduct its review of the federal coal-lease program, which Jewell estimated would take three years. But she warned that depending on the circumstances, some reviews have taken “six or seven years.” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) expressed doubt that it could take three years to conduct the study, saying two years should be more reasonable. He

President Barack Obama’s plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba slammed into a wall of Republican opposition on Tuesday, stopping cold Obama’s hope for a bipartisan effort to “close a chapter” that began in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The long-awaited proposal, which was requested by Congress, is Obama’s last attempt to make good on an unfulfilled campaign promise by persuading Congress to change the law that prohibits moving detainees accused of violent extremist acts to U.S. soil. Fourteen years after the facility opened and seven years after Obama took office, the president argued it

A pair of Republican senators has resurrected an old idea: splitting the Ninth Circuit, the largest and most liberal court of appeals in the country, into two courts. Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, aren’t the first to try. The Ninth Circuit dominates the western United States, serving about one-fifth of the population of the country, and the resultant caseload has created a bureaucratic logjam that court-watchers of all stripes dislike. Conservative critics derive extra motivation from the fact that the court, long perceived as being dominated by California, issues reliably liberal decisions that bind a full 20

A preacher, a doctor, a historian, a governor, two businessmen, a few veterans and some lawmakers walk into a bar … and the “bear den” is born. Every other week or so, an email will circulate among the Senate Republicans elected in 2014 with a line like, “Hey, you guys want to have a bear den?” The regular morning meetings take place in one of their offices, and the meeting name derives from the hotel bar in Hershey, Pa., where they gathered during their first joint Republican retreat. “I always joke that we should have a grunt as our official greeting or something,” Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said with a laugh.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., has HOH covered with intel on what members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee are doing in Alaska. On Monday, the committee held a field hearing on energy technology innovation, deployment and opportunities for Alaska’s energy future. On the way to the hearing in Bethel, Alaska, Daines showed Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.l; Angus King, I-Maine and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz via Snapchat. Moniz testified at the hearing. Daines showed the five senators jammed into a car in Bethel and then listening to people speak Yupik,