Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Zinke's a no-show in U.S. House while waiting for cabinet confirmation
Montana’s lone voice in the U.S. House of Representatives has been silent for more than six weeks.
Republican Ryan Zinke was still hanging around the Capitol last week -- one Huffington Post reporter tweeted on Thursday that Zinke was “spotted wearing jeans in the Senate,” an hour or so after another noted he was “hanging around the House floor, without a tie, living, if not his best life, at least a better life.”
In a process that looks like it’ll stretch into March (see related story), Zinke awaits Senate confirmation to become President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Interior. His last vote on the floor of the House came on Jan. 5, the third day of the Congressional session.
That comes as a surprise to Pat Williams of Missoula, a Democrat who served in the U.S. House from 1979 to 1997.
“Entirely,” Williams said Friday. “He’s no doubt working on his acquaintances and interests at the department, and he’s certainly got a lot of work to do there. But I can’t imagine him missing all the votes. Montana then has no vote in the House.”
Zinke, who was elected to a second at-large term in November with 56 percent of the Montana vote, has remained active on at least two Facebook accounts. He has tweeted or retweeted on occasion since the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved his nomination by a 16-6 vote on Jan. 17. But he has issued no press releases since mid-December. (Heather Swift, his communications director in Washington, has already moved over to the Department of Interior, as has Micah Chambers, Zinke’s deputy chief of staff.)...more
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