Issue Position: Appropriations

Issue Position

Issue Position: Appropriations

I have been working together with the Congressional Delegation to make sure Federal agencies know how important some of these projects are for Montana. I am pleased to say we have had some success in recovering lost funding. Some examples of 2007 projects that agencies have agreed to fund include:

•Malmstrom Air Force Base Housing Project: $140 million
•Yellowstone River Corridor Study: $1.1 million
•Rocky Mountain Front Conservation Area: $1.98 million
•Fort Peck Dry Prairie Rural Water System: $7 million
•Rocky Boy North Central Water System: $800,000
•St. Mary Rehabilitation Water System: $500,000
•Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Land Acquisition: $2.6 million
•Swan Valley Land Acquisition: $3 million
•Blackfoot River Special Recreation Management Area: $3 million
•Iron Mask/Elkhorn Mountains Conservation Project: $1.25 million
•Joe Skeen Institute for Rangeland Restoration at MSU: $990,000
•Northern Cheyenne Law Enforcement Center in Lame Deer: $900,000
•Jimmy Joe Campground near Roscoe: $584,000

We are in a new era, and we are going to have to work within those means. But the earmark ban in the 2007 Continuing Resolution does not mean that there will be no earmarks or projects funded in 2008 and the future. It is clear that the appropriations process will be more transparent but Montana welcomes transparency to the appropriations process. We have great projects in Montana and have nothing to hide. I will continue to fight to make sure Montana gets its fair share of federal dollars.

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