It may be tough for Montana to get much federal funding this year because of the “new way” the Democrats are doing business on the Appropriations Committee. It probably won’t help control spending, either.

Look to see more funding (billions upon billions) spent in states where the democrats have a member who has a seat on the Appropriations Committee.

Unfortunately, Montana does not have a Democrat on the Appropriations committee, but we have a Republican, U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, on House Appropriations. Politics will play a role in who gets projects funded. To defeat Rehberg, the Democrats will not be all that inclined to give him any publicity for bringing home the bacon. So, look for some earmarks that are approved to be funneled through Sen. Max Baucus and Sen. Jon Tester (both democrats), to get their names in the news, although they are not on the Senate Appropriations committee and have just a little say in the whole appropriations deal. Plus, Baucus is up for re-election in 2008, so you’ll see a little love thrown his way.

It looks like the democrats plan on adding the earmarks late in the fiscal year so they can’t be publicized by another member for being pork. They are basically hiding them from public view, which appears to The Western Word (TWW) to go against their earlier promises. That also appears to me to hurt the constituents back home, who will have no idea if their requests made the cut and cannot plan ahead for the funding or for not getting the funding.

It also looks like with nobody from Montana being on the Senate Appropriations committee, we won’t have anyone at the table to fight for funding for worthwhile projects. If Rehberg (who is on the House Appropriations Committee) is selected to be on a conference committee, which negotiates the differences between the House bill and Senate bill, the ball will entirely fall in his court to fight for all the Montana projects. All of them. It is big task and he is Montana’s best hope to get funding for many worthwhile projects.

So, we’ll see if this “new way” of doing business on the Democratic-controlled House and Senate appropriations committee reaps any benefits for Montana. Right now, it does not look good for Montana because of the way the Democrats are running the show and the lack of clout we have at the table. Only time will tell.