Opheim Students Pay A Visit

Transmittal (halftime) has come and gone, and now today (March 16) is the 54th day of the session. The House bills are coming over in droves to the Senate.

The BIG discussions will be the Medicaid expansion or various plans, and the budget. The House is taking up the budget (HB2) this week.  The budget will be the last act of the Legislature before we sine die (adjourn).

I am drafting a major infrastructure bill, and we will be hearing this in the next upcoming days. It still is in rough draft and we are meeting with Democrats and Republicans to make this a compromise bill that hopefully the governor will sign.

The governor has on his desk my SB88 that affects conservation districts in their bidding process. This bill just allows them the same monetary amounts ($80,000) as cities and counties when it come to the bidding process.

Today the House will be voting on my SB89 that makes supreme court justices and district court judges report their campaign donations, etc., the same way we legislators do to political practices.

 Last week some of my Senate bills were heard: 247-prohibit sage grouse hunting, 248-require ID for legislative comment, 283-revise laws related to constituent accounts for legislators, 284-approval for county commissioners for bison translocation in their county, and 376-revise laws regarding state agency use of recovered indirect costs: slush funds. More later as they wind through the House.

It is always good to see young folks here in Helena and last week the Opheim High School students and their advisors, Becky Dowden and Shane Bartsch, were at the Capitol. All for now.