U.S. Sen. Jon Tester came to Montana State University on Friday and said he's supporting increases in student financial aid and will try to restore at least some of the $15 million in earmarked research grants that MSU stands to lose.

"We're going to make the case that a lot of those are doggone important to the people of Montana, and to the people of the country," Tester said.

Tester fielded questions on everything from the war in Iraq to global warming from a crowd of about 70 people who gathered in the Strand Union Building's Northwest Lounge.

Pell grants, awarded to college students based on financial need, haven't been increased in four years, Tester said, and with a son in the Montana University System, he knows that tuition keeps rising.

So he supports a $650 million bill to raise Pell grants from just over $4,000 a year to $5,100. He added he'd support a further increase, "if we can find the money."

He also supports a bill that would cut interest rates on student loans in half.

Such spending is put at risk, Tester said, by the $2 billion a week it costs for the war in Iraq.

Tester , a Big Sandy farmer and Democrat, narrowly defeated three-term incumbent Republican Sen. Conrad Burns in November, helping Democrats win control of the U.S. Senate.

As a result, $15 million in research grants for MSU, $16 million for an on-campus federal agricultural research lab and $750,000 to buy the Story Mansion were imperiled. They had been earmarked in 2007 federal budget bills.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and other newly empowered Democrats announced they planned to clean up the corrupt earmark process, and so would effectively erase earmarks from the 2007 budget bills.

Tester put the blame on the previous Republican-controlled Congress for failing to pass the majority of budget bills on time.

Tester said he and Montana's senior senator, Democrat Max Baucus, plan to meet with Byrd next week to try to persuade him to restore the research money.

Tester said his Senate colleagues may support it if "daylight" is shined on the secretive earmarks, which politicians insert in spending bills for the folks back home.

Tester said the Senate just passed a bill that would raise the minimum wage and give tax breaks to small businesses, both of which he supported. He also promised to support MSU's TechRanch business incubator, Montana Manufacturing Extension Center and other efforts to create high-tech jobs in the state.

People often ask him about the differences between Montana and Washington, D.C., Tester said.

"Here there's clean air, good fishing, good hiking, you can go places alone," he said.
In Washington, he walks to work past the spectacular Library of Congress and Supreme Court buildings.
"It was pretty amazing, for a country boy like me, to walk onto the Senate floor," and meet people he'd only seen on TV, Tester said. "The most spectacular thing was to meet John Glenn, someone who, when I was in first grade, was orbiting the Earth. Pretty neat."
He joked it's hard to get a caucus in the Senate, because everyone is running for president.
He lives in a rented townhouse, 12-by-50 feet in size and three stories high, that's worth $4 million, he said in amazement. Not as affordable as Big Sandy, he said.
Asked how his plan to diet and fit into a new suit was going, he smiled. "Getting close -- I dropped 10 pounds last month."
Gail Schontzler is at gails@dailychronicle.com