Congressman Denny Rehberg

July 29, 2004

HAVRE, MT - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, announced he has secured $200,000 for Montana State University Northern (MSUN) in a House spending bill. The amount, included in a manager’s amendment to the VA-HUD Appropriations bill, will help enhance MSUN’s Applied Technology Center (ATC) in Havre. The House is expected to approve the measure in September.

“These funds, which will help stimulate regional growth and economic development, represent an important investment in the local community, as well as Montana’s economy.” Rehberg, who requested the amount, said. “Enhancing the Applied Technology Center will place both MSU-Northern and Havre at the forefront for delivering innovative industrial technology education to the benefit of rural Montana.”

The funds will be used to enhance technical education and applied research in the subjects of alternative energy and mobile power efficiencies. The improved facility at MSUN will also provide industry training and technical education outreach.

“I’ve known Denny for years. He understands the Hi-Line and rural Montana. Funding like this makes a significant difference in putting high tech equipment into that facility,” MSUN Chancellor Alex Capdeville said. “We have a great partnership with companies like General Electric and Caterpillar, so the opportunity to put money toward equipment is a big boost for what we we’re able to do.”

Specifically, the amount will help equip the facility with the latest in communication and visual technologies, instrumentation, test equipment and trainers, and applied research project staffing assistance.

“MSUN has an opportunity to help our state compete in the global economy, adding highly-trained and technologically proficient employees to Montana’s business and industry payrolls,” Rehberg said.

July 22, 2004

WASHINGTON, DC - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, denounced a House Agriculture Committee vote today that sought to denigrate Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) by making it a voluntary program. The Committee vote survived a Rehberg effort to reinstate the program’s mandatory requirement.

“What the anti-COOL crowd did today will fail in the long run if this goofy bill ever gets a vote before Congress,” Rehberg, a member of the panel, asserted. “Reducing mandatory food labeling to voluntary labeling is a little like letting bank robbers go free on the condition that they can now volunteer not to knock off banks.”

As well as reasserting mandatory requirements in Country of Origin Labeling, Rehberg’s substitute amendment would have moved up the date by one year for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to initiate the program. Fully funded, and despite today’s vote to strip mandatory requirements in the Committee, mandatory labeling is slated to begin in 2006.

“Americans deserve a reasonable expectation that their government will protect the food supply. They thought we settled this with the Farm Bill in 2002,” Rehberg added. “Mandatory labeling is about honesty, safety and trust, which is why I’ll do everything I can to protect COOL from those who would corrupt this program.

The 2002 Farm Bill required meat, fish and produce be labeled with their country of origin beginning September 30 of this year. Last year, COOL opponents failed to defund the program, but managed to stall the program’s delay by two years.

“America wants to know where the food on our tables is coming from. In fact, most of our trading partners across the globe already have their own labeling requirements, and they’re all mandatory,” Rehberg said. “This is going to happen, it’s paid for, and COOL opponents need to face the inevitable.”

July 22, 2004

WASHINGTON, DC - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today voted for and the House approved a Military Construction bill that includes $29.9 million for Malmstrom Air Force Base. The amount will provide 115 new family housing units at the base.

“These funds represent an important investment in the well-being of the families and personnel that serve their country at Malmstrom. I appreciate their service and what they bring to the community,” Rehberg said. “Malmstrom Air Force Base is crucial to the Great Falls community and to Montana’s economy.”

With Denny’s vote, the House approved the measure, which also includes $2.398 million readiness center improvements in Havre for the Montana Army National Guard.

“I’m pleased to see we secured the funding for the Readiness Center in Havre,” Rehberg said. “Important to the overall effort to maintain our homeland security, this item in the Military Construction bill also translate into jobs and help stimulate the local economy.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today helped pass a pair of reforms to the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). The amendments, approved by the House Resources Committee, include the Sound Science for ESA Planning Act and Critical Habitat Reform Act. The measures reform ESA by imposing standard scientific safeguards on the designation process and by placing a greater focus on species recovery in assigning critical habitat.

“I don’t think it’s too much to ask that the Endangered Species Act be changed to impose scientific accountability on federal bureaucrats empowered with spending millions of tax dollars to list and control the habitat of whatever species they determine to be threatened,” Rehberg said. “This is why I asked to become a member of the House Resources Committee. Those of us who are genuinely concerned about protecting endangered species support common-sense reforms, designed to hold this runaway law accountable to sound science and peer review.”

Widely deemed a regulatory failure, the law has recovered 12 of 1300 listed species, for a cumulative success rate of .01% (or a 99.99% rate of failure), according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service figures. More than a dozen of the 1300 were listed due to data errors and subsequently removed.

“For years, as someone who manages natural resources, I’ve been scratching my head over the Endangered Species Act,” Rehberg said. “Every time I hear the phrase, ‘shoot, shovel and shut up,’ I think of the landowners who know that the public discovery of an endangered or even threatened species could force their families to forfeit their land or business or both, with no recompense.”

More than 90% of endangered species have habitat on private land. However, poor decision-making, inadequate data, and unbridled power have cultivated regulatory condescension over the owners of most of the habitat: America’s farmers, ranchers, Native Americans, and private property owners. Research shows that the ESA has created a regulatory atmosphere that prompts land owners to actually destroy species habitat to rid their property of the government regulations that come with endangered species.

“Over the past thirty years, this well-intentioned but poorly-crafted law has subjected law-abiding citizens and their communities to a host of unintended consequences that have done more harm than good to the creatures and plants the law purports to save,” Rehberg explained. “I keep thinking, ‘Is this what they really intended?’ Instead of encouraging and enabling discoveries of threatened or endangered species, all this draconian law has accomplished is penalizing and making enemies of the citizens upon whose property the discoveries are made.”

WASHINGTON, DC - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg (R), said the U.S. Department of Agriculture USDA needs to get its process right before announcing inconclusive discoveries of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as “mad cow disease.” Rehberg, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, commented after a hearing this week with Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.

“By releasing the findings of preliminary tests for BSE without first verifying their accuracy, the USDA has fanned the flames of consumer panic at the expense rational food safety,” Rehberg said, referring to the premature announcement of two inconclusive BSE discoveries that it later dismissed. “This deviation from common sense on such an explosive issue spoils consumer confidence, throws the cattle markets onto a rollercoaster ride, and prompts our trading partners to take a step back from the table.”

Earlier this month, USDA twice announced separate cases in which preliminary tests presented inconclusive indications of mad cow disease. Later, the agency announced more accurate and thorough testing proved negative.

“While the USDA is correct to be transparent in its procedures,” Rehberg said, “why not simply use one, foolproof test that would settle the issue on the same day instead of announcing an inconclusive first assessment before a second and more thorough round of testing is completed?”

The USDA has already approved a single, more thorough test, which is currently in use in other countries. Yielding no false positives, the test renders a final, absolute answer within hours.

“As a cattle rancher and the former Lieutenant Governor of Montana, a state which relies on almost $1 billion from the cattle industry, it pains me to watch Montana producers and consumers take a huge hit due to speculation, doubt and uncertainty,” Rehberg said. “The USDA must change its policies and procedures – and fast.”

Billings, Montana, High School Student Artist Joins Montana’s Congressman for Official Capitol Hill Unveiling Today

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont) joined Montana’s winner of the 2004 Congressional Art Competition, Tori Wardrip, in Washington, DC today, as her artwork was unveiled during an official Capitol Hill ceremony.
Tori, who will be Junior at Billings West High School this fall, won the statewide competition for her detailed pencil drawing of a bald eagle.

“Tori’s winning entry is a remarkable portrayal of her talent and displays her obvious love for the magnificent symbol of our country,” Rehberg said. “It’s a wonderful and deserving illustration, and I’m very proud to have the work of this young Montanan on display for the enjoyment of visitors to our nation’s Capitol over the next twelve months,” concluded Rehberg after the official unveiling.

Tori was accompanied by her parents, Douglas and Cindy Wardrip of Billings. Northwest Airlines and Holiday Inn Downtown provided travel and hotel accommodations.

The annual competition, coordinated by Members of Congress, began in 1982 as an opportunity for the nation’s students to showcase their artistic talents. Entries were judged on originality, creativity, visual impact, expression of idea or theme, and use of technique in medium.