'Capital Crud' & More

Hello again from Helena. This is the last week before transmittal, (when all general bills going from one House to the other must be acted upon) and then we will be halfway through the session. The Legislature will have a few days off before we start on the second half where all the tough decisions will be made.

My SB248 passed the Senate last week and now will go to the House. It just merely states that when someone comments to the legislature they must give their name, town/city and state. This no different than when someone writes a letter or an editorial for the papers, they have to do the same. We are getting thousands of comments from folks from both within and out of state with NO names! And, for a comment to be accepted, with the passage of this bill, commentators would have to give this information. I care more of what the citizens of our state are saying rather than New York City or San Francisco!

My bison bill (SB284) passed the Senate last week also. This is very similar to Rep. Mike Lang's (R-Malta) bill of last session. This bill simply states that before ANY bison may be relocated in a county, from the Yellowstone herd particularly, the county commissioners must okay the translocation. This is for local control and public health reasons. Indian reservations are not affected. I just do not get the fact that the governor does not like local control. We had many, many county commissioners testify in favor of the bill. I would hope you would send letters and phone calls to the governor's office in favor of SB284.

Sen. Brad Hamlett's SB261 bill passed the senate. This is the sage grouse bill that the federal government is blackmailing Montana and 10 other states. They (the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) say we have a shortage of this bird. Montana and Wyoming DO NOT HAVE A SHORTAGE OF SAGE GROUSE! The last thing we want is to have this bird listed on the endangered species list. This puts us in the spot of damned if we do or damned if we do not go along with this program. Either way, it is a taking of our private property rights and it can stop one from building a house or the drilling of an oil well on your property! The federal government is not taking into consideration the predation of birds of prey and small four-legged animals. This, along with disease (West Nile virus) and weather are hurting the sage grouse population and it is not the habitat! The governor will probably veto my bill to stop hunting the bird if it gets to his office. How absurd!

All for now and I hope you are not getting what we call the "Capital Crud," but I guess this is where all the Hot Air is!