By Michael Howell
By Michael Howell
Montana Senator Jon Tester paid a visit last week to Jackie McCann’s first grade class at Florence-Carlton School. He stopped in to read a book to the students, including students from Rochelle Bloomquist’s fourth grade class.
The book, “Postcards from Washington D.C.: Traveling with Anna,” is a series of postcards written by a young girl visiting Washington D.C. to friends back home. Each postcard was about a building the young girl had visited including the White House, the Capital, the Smithsonian Institution, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and others.
Tester was pleasantly surprised by the degree of knowledge demonstrated by the students, not only about the buildings, but about the people who occupied them or the people for whom they were built to memorialize.
In the question and answer session that followed the reading, Tester was asked if he was famous. His answer was, “No.” Nonetheless, following the talk, he was mobbed by students wanting his autograph and he gladly obliged.
Tester has represented Montana in the U.S. Senate since 2007.
Earlier this year, he was named the most transparent U.S. Senator by the government watchdog service GovTrack.us. The widely read online watchdog based its ranking on Tester’s support for all eight of the bills it uses to measure lawmakers’ dedication to government transparency.
As part of his efforts on behalf of greater transparency, he recently introduced legislation to reveal the major donors who fund secret organizations that try to tell Americans how to vote. His bill will make public the form, called ‘Schedule B,’ that lists donors to independent political organizations that claim tax-exempt status and that engage in electioneering. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision allowed these groups to raise and spend tens of millions of dollars without voters knowing who is filling their coffers or why. His bill would make public the donors who give more than $5,000 to tax-exempt groups that engage in election activities.
“We need to get big money out of elections, but until we do, the American people deserve to know who is paying for the ads on their TVs,” Tester said in a news release. “When a candidate runs an ad, folks know who donated to their campaigns. Voters deserve to know who is behind these outside groups, too. Transparency is not a political issue. My bill will make our elections more transparent and empower all Americans.”
Tester is also pushing his own amendment to the U.S. Constitution that says ‘corporations are not people’.
In introducing his amendment, Tester called on Montana voters, who voted overwhelmingly to direct Montana’s Congressional delegation to amend the U.S. Constitution to empower Congress to limit corporate spending in elections.
Tester’s amendment would overturn Citizens United, the unpopular 2010 Supreme Court decision which allows corporations to spend unlimited money on political campaigns with no transparency.
Montana’s efforts to stand up to corporate influence in elections date back to the early 1900s, when wealthy mining corporations used their money to buy election outcomes. In response, Montana voters in 1912 passed an initiative limiting corporate influence – a law recently upheld by Montana’s Supreme Court, but overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.
“Montanans expect real people and their ideas – not corporations and their money – to decide our elections,” Tester said. “The Citizens United decision undermines Montana values and distorts the democratic process. Montanans rejected corporate control of elections a century ago, and I’m proud to join them in standing up for our long-held values.”
To alter the U.S. Constitution, an amendment must pass both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives by two-thirds majority before being ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures.
Tester also recently commented on U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris’ ruling that determined Montana’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, saying, “I applaud today’s ruling. It aligns our laws with our values and is a big step forward for our state. Denying same-sex couples the right to marry denies them happiness and equal protection under the law.”
Tester supports building the Keystone XL Pipeline “as long as it is built to the highest safety standards and respect for private property rights.” He authored the bill’s provision to protect private property rights.
He released the following statement after the Senate failed to move forward with legislation approving the Keystone XL Pipeline:
“I’m disappointed the Senate today failed to pass bipartisan legislation that creates jobs and increases energy security. We need to seize every common-sense opportunity to move this country forward. I remain optimistic that – despite today’s vote – Congress will find ways to work together to strengthen our nation.”
Fifty-nine senators voted to approve the pipeline. Sixty senators were needed to pass the legislation.
Tester has been a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee since he joined the Senate in 2007. With the VA estimating that 22 veterans take their own lives every day, at a recent committee hearing focused on how the Department of Veterans Affairs treats veterans with mental health conditions, Tester suggested two ways to reduce veterans suicide: increase the number of mental health professionals and reduce the stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment.
“The challenges of stigma that surround mental health, as well as not having enough mental health professionals, are huge. We’ve got to figure out how to transcend that – both in the public and private sector,” he said.