Mehlhoff, a Democrat, expressed alarm at the prospect of communities being forced to foot the bill for expensive certification of flood levees or face dramatic increases in flood insurance rates.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has refused to continue carrying out certifications of levees, citing a lack of funds.

“What I see as a solution to this is the Corps of Engineers needs to take over responsibility for levee certification,” Mehlhoff told the committee. “The Corps has the data all the way back to the construction of our two levee systems in Cascade County, plus data from annual and periodic inspections.

“Local levee district elected officials need to be given back their original responsibility of overseeing levee maintenance only,” Mehlhoff added.

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Postmaster General John E. Potter has urged the change to five-day mail delivery, saying that the cash-strapped post office won’t survive without such a fundamental change to its operations.

The Postal Service is expected to lose $7 billion in this fiscal year, which ends in September. Potter has warned that the agency will lose hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade without Congress approving this and other changes.

But Tester said in a statement that he had persuaded the Senate financial services appropriations subcommittee to oppose five-day mail delivery. He said that eliminating Saturday deliveries would not produce the major savings that Potter forecasts, while it would surely be a hardship on people living in rural areas.

“Our proposal for five-day delivery is an important ingredient in the Postal Service’s action plan to survive well into this century,” said Gerald McKiernan, a Postal Service spokesman. “We would hope other members of the Senate will resist this proposal.”

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Metzler ran the historic military burial ground for almost two decades. A recent investigation by the Army revealed that as many as 6,600 graves had been mismarked.

McCaskill, chair of a committee oversight panel, asked Metzler about the first date he felt something was wrong, and pressed former deputy superintendent Thurman Higginbothom about his reportedly strained relationship with Metzler. Higginbothom subsequently invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to make self-incriminating testimony.

Metzler said the situation “pained him personally,” and expressed his “deep regret” towards families that the mistakes may have affected. Metzler cautioned the committee not to rush to judgment on an issue of great “complexity and breadth.”

That didn’t go over too well with more than a few members. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) expressed his frustration and contempt for the mismanagement, telling Metzler that he was “interested to hear what the excuses are, because I can’t think of any in my head.”

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U.S. Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus made the announcement today saying the legislation would help establish a revolving loan fund for the Jefferson Local Development Corporation to grow small businesses.

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I also want to thank our own Sen. Jon Tester for taking a lead role in the Wall Street Reform. Despite a huge lobbying effort by the banks and corporations, Sen. Tester held his ground and stood up for us during the heat of this debate. This Wall Street legislation finally makes criminal the new tactics banks invented to gamble with investors’ money and deceive people and deceive regulators. Most important, we no longer have to worry about footing the bill because millionaire CEOs were irresponsible. Irresponsible banks can now be caught early, with no tax-funded bailouts.

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