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After the Trump administration upended the world’s largest foreign aid provider last year, terminating thousands of programs and firing nearly all of its staff, its plan for the agency was clear: Eliminate it entirely.
But because it is a congressionally created agency, President Donald Trump needed lawmakers’ permission to do so. So this year, Trump officials asked Congress for permission to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development and dramatically reduce federal spending on food, medicine and lifesaving work around the world. Congress said no. Lawmakers, who hold the government’s purse strings and have oversight of federal agencies, wanted USAID to remain, even in its diminished form. They detailed precisely how much the State Department should spend on foreign aid and for what, including $9.4 billion on global health to treat and prevent maladies like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and more than $5 billion on emergency humanitarian aid.
Off-road Vehicles in Wilderness Areas? Local conservationists say the potential U.S. Agriculture Department secretarial memorandum is part of the latest effort to roll back regulations and undermine years of collaboration in managing motorized and non-motorized use in the Flathead National Forest.
The New York Times earlier this month reported that a leaked memo directed the use of ORVs on 5 million acres in Montana and Idaho, 193,403 acres of which are within recommended wilderness areas on the Flathead National Forest. Local stakeholders say the directive would unwind years of collaborative work if it comes to fruition. “The secretarial memo — should it be released — would be a pretty drastic change in management direction for areas recommended as wilderness by the Forest Service,” Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance Executive Director Peter Metcalf said. “The Forest Service has been directed by Congress — going back decades — to inventory all the lands under its management for eligibility for inclusion for wilderness.”
A district court judge agreed earlier this month that a state agency likely erroneously dismissed concerns raised by several groups when issuing a water use permit for a forthcoming 1,700-acre resort in Lakeside.
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation was sued March 23 after it terminated several objections to the permit application raised by two Flathead County nonprofits, a Lakeside resident and a Texas-based real estate company earlier this year. One of the nonprofits, Citizens for a Better Flathead, and Lakeside resident Bruce Young were barred from advancing in the objection process, according to court documents. Lakeside-based North Shore Water Alliance and the Texas real estate investment company were allowed to partially move forward on some of their objections. All the objectors filed suit in Lewis and Clark County District Court, arguing their public participation rights under the Montana Administrative Procedures Act were violated.
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