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Daines Appointed To Banking, Tester Chairs Veterans Affairs In New Congress Committees

Sens. Jon Tester, left, and Steve Daines, speaking together in Jardine, Mont., in August 2017.
Sens. Jon Tester, left, and Steve Daines, speaking together in Jardine, Mont., in August 2017.

The U.S. Senate has made its committee assignments for the 117th Congress.

Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines is newly appointed to Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, which oversees financial aid to industry, government contracts, public housing and urban development, and all matters related to banks and banking.

He remains on Finance, which deals with taxation, social security and health programs like Medicaid, and Energy and Natural Resources, which has jurisdiction over energy resources and development, forest management and water resources. And he remains on the Indian Affairs Committee. It’s a committee assignment he shares with Montana’s Democratic Senator Jon Tester.

Tester is now the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs committee, which oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs. Tester took over the chairmanship with the Democrats becoming the majority party in the 117th Congress.

Tester retains his committee assignments on Appropriations, which regulates government spending, and on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which oversees communications and product safety.

Tester also serves on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, along with Daines.

Kay Erickson has been working in broadcasting in Billings for more than 20 years. She spent well over a decade as news assignment editor at KTVQ-TV before joining the staff at YPR. She is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, with a degree in broadcast journalism. Shortly after graduation she worked in Great Falls where she was one of the first female sports anchor and reporter in Montana.