On the eve of President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated jobs speech, Montana’s Republican congressman and two Democratic senators are focusing their attention on, well, jobs.
Yesterday Sen. Jon Tester released a statement pushing Halliburton to hire Montanans as the massive oilfield services company pursues energy exploration projects along the Bakken oil shale formation in eastern Montana.
Tester was responding to news that Halliburton plans to hire 11,000 people to work in North Dakota and Montana. In a letter to Halliburton Chairman and CEO David J. Lesar, Tester wrote that “Montanans have a tireless work ethic.”
“Montanans in the eastern part of the state near the Bakken Shale are ready to work at a moment’s notice. Montanans elsewhere in the state are also ready to get to work and have all the skills necessary for the projects Halliburton is undertaking.”
Rep. Denny Rehberg has also pinpointed a specific area of opportunity for job growth in Montana. The congressman recently wrote a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Daniel Ashe urging “a timely completion of the environmental review that is necessary for Montanore to move forward.” Montanore is a stalled mined project near Libby.
“When I tell people that the way government creates jobs is to get out of the way and let Montana businesses do what they’re inclined to do, the situation in Libby is a prime example of what I’m talking about,” Rehberg said.
And there’s Sen. Max Baucus, who today started a process that he hopes will ultimately result in more jobs across the country. Today was the first meeting of the debt-reduction “super committee,” of which Baucus is a member.
“Clearly the efforts we undertake to cut our debt must also help put people back to work – it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s also smart economics,” Baucus said. “More jobs means more growth.”