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Dear Editor, It has been my honor to represent the people from Wibaux, Dawson, and Richland Counties in the Senate the past seven years. Because of term limits, I cannot be a senator after eight years, so, I will not be running again, and my term ends at the end of 2024. As I campaigned from the very start, my passion was to give the people in my Senate District freedom. There are special interest groups that try to persuade you to build bureaucracies that would benefit them but the biggest thing on my mind was freedom. As I come to the end of...
Greetings from Helena! The committees are about finished with their work. In Judiciary Committee, we had a Governor’s Judicial appointment for District 9, Gregory Bonilla. Shelby will be his headquarters. He answered my questions on the constitution well. He will be confirmed on the Senate Floor this week. In Fish and Game committee we had two Governor’s appointments to confirm for the State Parks and Recreation Board, Liz Whiting, and John Marancik. They will also be confirmed on the Senate Floor this week. Monday is going to be a busy day...
Greetings from Helena! This has been one of the busiest weeks in the Montana State Legislature since I have been here, for two reasons. One reason is that any Senate bills with a fiscal note have to be transferred to the House by Tuesday, April 4. The other reason is that all house bills that need amended have to be through the Senate by April 13. The time for sine die is getting closer. In Judiciary committee we heard several bills about how to change the path of Child Protective Services. Since Montana has the highest per capita in the nation...
Greetings from Helena! It seems like things are picking up again as deadlines are getting closer. We just have four weeks to finish our work for the year. We haven’t even started on HB2 and other spending bills. Every committee has been full of bills which made long days every day this week. There is a lot of conversation in the Ranger Review about HB234 by Representative Phalen. The conversation mentions two meetings, one in the Glendive Public Library, which Representative Phalen and I attended, and one in the DCHS library. So, I thought I w...
Greetings from Helena! We had quite a bit of activity on the Senate floor this past week, with mostly House bills. One Senate bill we had this week that had appropriations in it was SB 458, which would make the sex on a birth certificate the legal sex. This is to be consistent with Montana Code. There are supposedly 81 genders and climbing so things in the code are getting confusing and there have been some lawsuits threatened. HB450 dealt with bullying in schools and self-defense. In Judiciary committee we dealt with bills about dangerous...
Greetings from Helena! It was good to be home for a few days and seeing the friendly faces in eastern Montana. I get a lot of emails and phone calls from my constituents in SD18. The large majority are in support of how I vote. There are a small few who are not. When I ran for senate, I swore to uphold the constitution. My life is guided by my faith in God and the moral principles He has set. I use these as my guide when I am voting. Governor Gianforte is going to have a bill signing Monday, March 13, 2023, to sign a group of bills including...
Greetings from Helena! In Judiciary committee we heard bills about landlords and tenants, protecting individual rights from government, the abuse of the judicial system, and etc. It seems like there is a lot of concern about parent’s rights. From all over the state of Montana, schools and courts and child protective services have claimed responsibility for kids over parents. There have been several bills dealing with this issue. SB337 by Senator Manzella was one of these bills. In Public Health and Human Safety committee we had an array of b...
Greetings from Helena! The Transmittal deadline is coming up fast. I am going to introduce four more bills this week that need to be heard and hopefully moved through the Senate before Transmittal. There are two bills dealing with FWP, one dealing with DOJ, and one dealing with elections. The unions were active this week at the capitol. Along with the several lobbyists they have here all the time there were a lot of members walking around, holding signs, and testifying in committees. They were here because of my bill SB276 and HB 448,...
Greetings from Helena! We finished our 6th week, so we are one-third of the way into the 68th Legislative Session. We heard a variety of things in Judiciary this week. We heard some bills about dealing with injunctions. There are some cases where environmental groups have sued to stop mining or building projects and with no reason or a hearing judges will issue injunctions. Some of these injunctions have been around for years. We want to put a stop to this practice. We heard some bills on parent’s rights concerning Child Family Services (...
Greetings from Helena! Jan. 30 - Some of my bills are moving through the process. I introduced SB55 in committee, which deals with the DEQ becoming a member of a national lobbying group, to deal with the Federal government, which is very anti-mining and fossil fuels, as you all know. SB 55 will be on the floor this week, probably. I am still working on getting my other bills, so they have a chance at passing. I am not much on compromising, but I understand that getting part of it is probably better than nothing. There are lots of lobbyists in H...
Things keep rolling on fast pace at the Capitol. There are lots of people involved in this process. There are elected officials, people representing themselves, agencies, and of course there are lobbyists and special interest groups, trying to help us from our opinion on most bills. It is an interesting process. One of the bills we heard this past week in Judiciary committee was SB210. This bill deals with assisted suicide. There are several problems now with Montana Code Annotated (MCA) concerning assisted suicide. As far as death...
Greetings from Helena! There was a lot of activity at the capitol this week. I saw a few people from eastern Montana. It is fun to have you stop and see us if you are in Helena. One important bill that is coming up soon in Judiciary committee is SB99. This bill prohibits kids under 18 years old from receiving surgery to alter their anatomy in an attempt to change their gender. I have received a lot of mail on this subject, much of it is hard to understand, but it has not changed my mind. SB58, my Block Management bill, has passed out of the...
Greetings from Helena! Our second week of session seemed like a busy week. I presented my first two bills: SB 58, which raised the cap on Block Management from $25,000 to $50,000, and SB 42, which allows an easier path for a right of way through state trust land. Both bills passed out of committee and are headed to the Senate floor this week. I have three bills that I am working on that might take a little more push. The first bill, LC1348, is to get rid of perpetuity in conservation easements that are financed by state money. The second,...
Greetings from Helena! We are back in Helena for the 68th Legislative session and Freedom is still the foundation I stand on as we talk legislation, write legislation, and vote on legislation. I am reminded of the quote by Benjamin Franklin “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” I have found over the years in Helena that not everyone pays attention to this quote. Going along with this idea, there is a Freedom Caucus in the United States Congress that is branching out to...
Greetings from Helena! This week in Fish and Game committee I presented SR88 which was a Senate resolution to appoint four commissioners to the Montana Fish and Game. I am excited about the diversity that we have with these four commissioners. These four nominees represent industry, landowners, agriculture, outfitting, recreationists, hunters, and fishermen. Some of the fake hunting groups, supported by out of state and out of country billionaires, came in opposition to SR88. We also heard SB382 and SB384, which addressed Aquatic Invasive...
Greetings! Another year is about to end, and a legislative session is about to start. I am honored to have been re-elected by the people from Senate District 18. Through the election the people gave a loud and clear message to those of us in the legislative process; the people of Montana want freedom! I acknowledge that COVID-19 is a real virus and any loss of life is tragic. Nevertheless, Montanans have been impacted by the reaction to COVID-19 in several ways: from businesses suffering, to the impact on the election process, to the lack of ac...
Greetings, I had my last interim EQC meeting last week. We discussed issues like delisting grizzlies, wilderness study areas, TENORMS in waste disposal sites, a new license for trappers, aquatic invasive species, chronic wasting disease, and many other topics. We heard from many speakers and went on several educational tours. There was a lot of discussion about these issues. We again see the philosophy differences between committee members when talking about issues like delisting the grizzlies. The National Wildlife Federation CEO stated in tes...
Dear Editor, For years we have watched the passion of the “Pro-choice” and anti-gun people and the progress they have made. There has been over 50 million babies killed by abortion since 1973, plus thousands of women have died, in the process. The anti-gun people have taken several runs at trying to take our guns away across the nation and even in this state. The most recent attempt that made the headlines was in Virginia. The point being, we have a problem. My wife and I had the privilege of going to Sidney to the meeting held on Jan. 20 to...
Greetings! The 66th Legislative Session officially came to a close on Thursday, April 25, the 87th legislative day. We came home that night, just in time to enjoy the nice rains. Some of the bright spots of the session were that we passed some pro-life bills and some pro-gun bills. The pro-life bills were SB 100, requiring an ultrasound before an abortion, HB 500, “Pain-Capable Act”, making it illegal to have an abortion after 20 weeks, and, SB 354, “Montana Born Alive Infant Protection Act”, which requires doctors to give medical care to babi...
Greetings from Helena. I hope everyone is enjoying spring. We have finished Legislative Day 77. There is still talk that we might finish before the allotted 90 days. Time will tell. One of the bills we passed out of Judiciary Committee and the Senate was HB 567, the “School Marshall” bill by Representative Derek Skees (R) Kalispell. This bill will allow an employee of the school to be armed. The training for the Marshalls would be conducted by the Montana Law Enforcement Academy. This would be a voluntary program for the schools. Another bill w...
Greetings from Helena. The big bill this week on the floor was HB 2, the budget. There are 5 parts to HB 2, so it took most of one day for the hearing and debate on the floor. We resisted several amendments, mostly by Democrats who wanted to raise the budget more. The main part of the budget is $10.3 Billion, with several companion bills coming along behind. I voted against HB 2 because it is way too much money. This budget is an increase from last session. In Judiciary Committee we heard bills ranging from driver’s license suspensions to m...
Greetings from Helena. We put in some extra-long days this week, with extra floor sessions. As we near the final weeks of the session we will probably see more of these as deadlines are approaching. HB 2, the budget, was heard in Senate Finance and Claims Committee this past week. We will hear it on the Senate floor sometime this week. In Judiciary Committee, we heard SB 354, Born Alive Act, carried by Senator Olszewski. This bill says that a baby that survives an abortion has a right to live. We passed it out of committee on a party line...
Greetings from Helena. We finished Legislative Day 60 on Saturday. SB 137, my Ag fuel bill, was signed by Governor Bullock on March 21. It will become effective on July 1, 2019. HB 2, the budget, will probably be heard in the Senate this week. This is always an interesting time because there are those who think we need to spend a lot more of the people’s money, there are those who think we need to spend a little more of the people’s money, and those like me who think we need to spend less of the people’s money. We know the Government doesn...
Greetings from Helena. It was good to be home for a few days during transmittal break. We came back to Helena on the 10th and hit the ground running. Things will continue to get busier as we get closer to the end of the 90-day session. SB 137, a bill I sponsored, “Revise laws related to agriculture use of special fuel” passed through both houses unanimously and is on its way to the Governor. This bill allows agriculture producers to purchase fuel within 50 miles of their home base and pay for it by any means and still qualify for the agr...
Greetings from Helena! We finished week 7, another snowy week, and are looking forward to the transmittal break. All non-fiscal bills must be moved from one house to the other by March 1st. I heard some troubling news this week for Richland County and Eastern Montana regarding the closing of the Lewis and Clark Station coal-fired power plant. This plant has been a source of power for MDU customers and a source of employment for Richland county since 1958. I was a little disappointed that MDU couldn’t find a power generating source in Montana. I...
