Confirmation follows long, bitter fight over Trump nominees in D.C.

By Jordan Hansen DAILY MONTANAN

Kurt Alme was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana, following a bitter, partisan fight in Washington, D.C.

Alme, a former U.S. Attorney for Montana during President Donald Trump’s first administration, was confirmed in a 51-47 vote. Democrats and Republicans have fought for more than a decade about confirmation votes and the filibuster barrier of a 60-vote threshold to approve presidential appointments.

Democrats blocked many of President Donald Trump’s appointments, but Republicans changed the rules in the Senate this fall to speed up the nomination process. Both parties have mounted similar rule changes to push through nominations during the last 10 years, the AP reported.

Trump took to social media this summer to criticize Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who is the Senate Judiciary chairman and oversees that process. Grassley has been on the committee since 1981.

Trump took aim at a so called “blue slip” process, which allows home-state senators to approve or block some nominees.

In late September, Republicans in the U.S. Senate moved to confirm 48 positions. Earlier this week, they moved through 107 more, which included Alme.

“For nine months, Senate Democrats engaged in historic obstruction of law enforcement, placing an unprecedented hold on all 93 U.S. Attorney nominees,” Grassley said in a statement. “Even as our nation reeled from horrific mass shootings, attacks on federal facilities and a devastating political assassination, Democrats have continued to deny American communities their top federal law enforcement officials.”

Alme is the former head of the Montana Department of Revenue and was also in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana between 2003 and 2010. A Great Falls native, Alme grew up in Dillon, Victor and Helena, graduating from Miles City. He holds degrees from the University of Colorado and Harvard University.

His appointment and confirmation received heavy praise across the state.

“Kurt has already done an incredible job in his interim capacity and we are thrilled to see his final confirmation by the U.S. Senate,” Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy said in a joint press release. “Kurt will crack down on drug trafficking and crime, protect our indigenous communities, and uphold the rule of law, and we look forward to seeing the continued impact that he will have on our great state.”

The Montana County Attorneys Association and the Montana Sheriff’s and Peace Officers Association both praised the appointment. Several organizations and people — including the Montana Nonprofit Association, Director of Montana Department of Corrections Brian Gootkin and former Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst — sent letters in support of Alme to Daines and Sheehy.

His appointment received bipartisan support as well, including from Rep. Shelly Fyant, an Arlee Democrat who used to lead the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council.

“I saw the work the U.S. Attorney’s Office did focusing on reducing methamphetamine and opioid related overdoses and violent crimes, which not only plague the Flathead Indian Reservation, but reservations throughout Montana and the Nation,” Fyant wrote in a letter to Daines and Sheehy. “Mr. Alme’s hands-on approach was greatly appreciated as he frequently visited Montana reservations and met directly with Tribal leaders about specific drug abuse and trafficking, public safety and Missing & Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) issues.”