WASHINGTON — Sen. Jon Tester says the lawmakers who oversee the budget of the post office will block a proposal to reduce mail deliveries to five days a week.
The Montana Democrat said eliminating Saturday deliveries would be a hardship on people living in rural areas without producing major savings for the Postal Service.
The Senate panel that oversees the budget of the U.S. Postal Service will not consider cutting mail delivery to five days per week, Senator Jon Tester said Wednesday.
The Senate Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee, of which Tester is a member, voted to continue Saturday delivery, “because people who live in rural areas rely on Saturday delivery for essential deliveries like medications, newspapers and checks,” Tester said in a statement.
Sen. Jon Tester introduced legislation Monday that would expand the type of health-care providers eligible for student loan forgiveness and scholarships under the Public Health Service Act in an effort to lure much-needed health-care specialists to Libby.
“As it is right now, it’s unprecedented what’s going on in Libby and this will open new doors for folks to make sure that Libby gets the health-care providers and the health care that they deserve,” Tester said.
A Lewis and Clark County biomass project is making headway in obtaining federal funding.
This year’s Energy and Water Appropriations Act passed the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday. The legislation would provide $800,000 for the Tri-County Biomass Pilot Project, which would use woody biomass produced in Lewis and Clark, Jefferson and Broadwater counties to create renewable energy for the city of Helena. The three counties yield about 350,000 tons of biomass a year, from sources like dead trees.
SHEPHERD — Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., says he’ll do what he can to help a Montana company that is vying to play a role in cleaning up the oil released after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tester met Friday with Bruce Kania, chief executive of Floating Islands International. The 11-year-old company has developed patented floating islands that purify polluted water by mimicking the properties of natural wetlands. A 250,000-square-foot floating island, Kania told Tester, could be harnessed to treat up to 1 million gallons of oil-fouled water per minute. Now that the flow from the Deepwater Horizon oil well has been contained and the gusher may soon be permanently plugged, public attention is turning to cleanup efforts throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
