Montana’s freshman U.S. Sen. Jon Tester talked about several issues in a press conference Thursday, including his desire to find out more about the federal government’s role in shoring up financial businesses in crisis. Tester, a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, said he has some questions for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 23. He said he wants to know more about what the federal government has done during the turmoil in the finance industry, including its $85 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG, the takeover of housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the bankruptcy of investment bank Lehman Brothers. “There’s a lot of dough going out the door here, tens of billions of dollars … ,” Tester said. “This is a big, big issue. I don’t see any small businesses or working families bailed out, family farms helped. “It’s not an easy time,” Tester added, “I am not saying what they did is wrong but I sure need some answers for some questions before I say it was right.” Tester also cited some recent legislation in the Senate as successes, including a bill to increase pay for U.S. military personnel and increase the size of some branches of the service. He said the Defense Authorization Act would increase pay for members of the service 3.9 percent and would also increase the size of the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps. Many amendments proposed for the bill were cut, but Tester said he still supports the measure. “It’s a good bill overall and we need to get it passed,” he said. A large part of the press conference dealt with energy bills passing through Congress. Tester cited one bill he proposed with the intent to make it easier to start alternative energy production and transmission, the “Renewable Energy Pilot Project Office.” Tester said he proposed the bill to try to reduce the red tape involved in starting new projects. “Often bureaucracy gets in the way of progress,” Tester said. The proposal would create six new offices, including one in Montana, to help streamline the bureaucracy and speed up the timeline for new projects, he said. Tester cited the proposed Montana-Alberta tieline, which would create a new energy transmission line between the two regions. The tieline will transmit renewable energy produced in Montana and Alberta, increasing the chance of success of alternative energy projects, but it has been tied up in red tape for three years, he said. He said he is hopeful that an energy bill that passed the House has success in the Senate, although he couldn’t guarantee it will pass. The bill includes increasing offshore drilling 50 miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, with the approval of adjacent states, and would pay for tax incentives for creation of alternative energy by cutting tax breaks for oil companies. It passed the House Tuesday on a largely party-line vote, with Republicans — and the president — saying it does not do enough to increase offshore drilling and would actually stifle new drilling. Tester said he thinks the House bill is a good start. “It’s a nice mix, drilling with some renewable energy with some conservation,” he said. “It’s a nice road map to the future, absolutely a very solid first step.”
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