118th Congress

Today, Congressman Ryan Zinke of Montana’s First Congressional District cast his first two legislative votes after being sworn into the 118th Congress early Saturday morning. The first vote was on the rules package which governs how the House operates for the 118th Congress. It is widely considered the most conservative package in decades and restores a number of fiscal and procedural safeguards that had been gutted in recent years. The second vote was to defund the 87,000 IRS agents authorized in the 2022 “Inflation Reduction Act.”

The Office of Congressman Zinke announces this year’s National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) federal grant recipients. The NEA awards grants toward organizations to support the art community and is open to applicants across the country. This is the first of two grant announcements for the fiscal year and Montana’s First Congressional District is home to five groups who received a combined total of $85,000.

Today, Congressman Ryan Zinke announced Montana State University will receive a federal grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The purpose of the grant is to support the university’s work identifying heterogenous neuronal responses to HSV-1 infection with drop-based microfluidics.

Today Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke was appointed to the influential House Committee on Appropriations, the committee has authorization over funding – and defunding – the federal government. The committee is vital to the House upholding its constitutional power of the purse and ensuring the spending by agencies follows the will of the People, rather than the discretion of unelected bureaucrats. Positions on the committee are highly competitive and members typically are appointed after two or three terms in the House. Zinke brings with him seniority from his previous tenure in the House and his expertise as a former U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

Today, Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke co-sponsored the Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) From China Act introduced by Representative McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). This vote places restricting measures on the Secretary of Energy from selling products from the SPR to any entity owned, under the control or influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), or to any other entity that intends to export to China.