Delegation visits Kalispell this week
Montana's congressional delegation will be in Kalispell this week to discuss the recently passed economic stimulus bill.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., will hold a roundtable discussion with business and community leaders this morning at the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce. Sen. Max Baucus had planned to attend but instead will be in Denver today to attend President Barack Obama's signing of the stimulus bill.
Both senators refer to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as the "Jobs Bill," and both supported it in a final vote in the Senate last week.
The overall bill includes $787 billion in spending and tax cuts, and both senators maintain it will provide at least $626 million in "Montana-specific projects," including $212 million for highway construction and $39 million for water systems.
"This bill will help create and save good-paying jobs and will help get our economy back on track," Baucus said in a press release last week. "And it's an investment in our economy's future. We have two choices in life ? we can try or do nothing. Today we are trying to make Montana and our country a better place and I believe that's what we've done."
Also visiting Kalispell this week will be Montana's lone congressman, Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg.
He will lead an economic roundtable forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday that is open to the public at Flathead Valley Community College's Arts and Technology building.
Last week he joined all other House Republicans and seven Democrats in voting against the stimulus bill.
In a statement reacting to the bill clearing Congress, Rehberg focused his criticism on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
He said "the Pelosi deal is filled with wasteful spending that will do nothing to jump start the economy but will permanently bloat the federal government and make future tax increases inevitable. Montanans will end up owing more than we'll receive because we're being asked to subsidize the irresponsible spending in state's like California, Speaker Pelosi's home state."
"While Montana needs and deserves a stimulus bill that creates jobs and boosts the economy," he continued, "all we got today was a bigger federal government."
A panel for Rehberg's forum on Wednesday's is scheduled to include Web Brown of the Montana Chamber of Commerce; Dave Harvey of the Sportsman and Ski Haus in Kalispell; Steven Thompson of Semitool; Jim Lehrer of Plum Creek Timber Co.; and Terry Kramer of Kramer Enterprises in Kalispell.