In The News

After meeting with timber, fire and wildlife supporters in Kalispell on Monday, Sen. Steve Daines predicted a new forest management bill he’s co-sponsored could be law in four months. “We spent the time to get a strong, bipartisan launch,” Daines said on Monday. “There’s a high probability we’ll have a hearing when we go back in September, and the goal is to get the bill signed into law by the end of the year.” Republican Daines and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California introduced the Emergency Wildfire and Public Safety Act on Aug. 4. It has since picked up two

HELENA — State judges presiding over Montana’s drug-treatment courts said they’re a much better route than throwing addicts in prison. But, late last week, treatment court officials told U.S. Senator Steve Daines that they could use more resources for more courts and that the pandemic isn’t helping either. Members of Helena’s drug-court treatment team met with Senator Daines on Friday to talk about successes and struggles. Two drug-court treatment graduates, Dawn Knowles and Joe Wolhers, said the program has helped them recover, after years of addiction and family trauma. Daines said he’s a big proponent of treatment courts which sometimes

HELENA — Montana’s congressional delegation Friday continued to raise questions about U.S. Postal Service actions they feared could delay mail service in the state – including the removal of mail drop-boxes from several cities. The Postal Service said Friday it’s putting on hold the removal of any of the traditional blue drop-boxes in Montana – although it has also said removal of some boxes is fairly routine, in response to mail volume. The drop-box-removal issue was raised first by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Thursday, in a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, asking if the removals were occurring

Senior living providers should be included in future federal funding allocations from the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund (PHSSEF), wrote U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) in an Aug. 12 letter sent to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar II. “The healthcare heroes in these communities are on the front lines of this crisis, and while they continue to do everything they can to care for our nation’s seniors and mitigate the spread of COVID-19, they need financial relief,” Sen. Daines wrote. “I appreciate the allocations that the administration has already made to numerous healthcare

Treatment courts have seen success in Montana but faced significant struggles during the coronavirus pandemic, Lewis and Clark County officials told U.S. Sen. Steve Daines on Friday. Daines joined a roundtable with treatment court staff, graduates and veterans’ advocates at American Legion Post 2 in Helena. The group came to discuss the value of treatment courts and the struggles they faced during COVID-19 when many of the face-to-face interactions the programs are based on became impossible. “I think this is such a great investment in taxpayer dollars because we’re literally seeing men and women on paths to incarceration get into

HELENA – Members of Montana’s treatment court program met for the first time since the start of the pandemic at the Helena American Legion to discuss the best ways to get Montanans help during these isolated times. Representatives from Great Falls and Missoula treatment courts were in attendance to discuss concerns of COVID-19 and its impact on Montanans participating in treatment court programs. “The ones that came into the program right before the pandemic, we just don’t have that by in with them and the trust so it’s been really difficult with our group of people,” says Layla Eichler, First

HELENA — As the U.S. Postal Service faces another funding crisis, Montana’s congressional delegation is united in its condemnation of moves by President Trump’s new postmaster general to delay mail service. The delegation’s two Republicans – U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte – wrote letters to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy last week, demanding he reverse new policies that will delay mail delivery. And Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester had even stronger words, saying DeJoy wants to “destroy” the Postal Service. “He’s doing everything he can to destroy it,” Tester told MTN News. “We’ve got to hold that

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers from both parties are calling on the U.S. Postal Service to immediately reverse operational changes that are causing delays in deliveries across the country just as big volume increases are expected for mail-in election voting. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that changes imposed by the new, Republican postmaster general “threaten the timely delivery of mail — including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers and absentee ballots for voters — that is essential to millions of Americans.″ In separate letters, two Montana Republicans, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte,

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) on Aug. 4 introduced bipartisan legislation that would increase wildfire preparedness and response throughout the United States. “We must manage our forests, so they don’t manage us,” Sen. Daines said. The senator signed on as the lead original cosponsor of the untitled S. 4431, which is sponsored by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), to provide the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) with the necessary tools to protect communities from wildfires, according to a bill summary provided by Sen. Daines’ office. “I am very happy to join Senator Feinstein in introducing this strong, commonsense forest management legislation,”