Legislature gets through Week 11

I started the week spending a bit of time and sharing information with some of the Fort Benton junior and senior classes, along with their bus driver and teachers. I understand some students had to travel to D.C. and the rest got to come to Helena. It was a nice group that seemed to enjoy hearing about session and its bill-making processes.

We did pass the Marijuana Bill, Senate Bill 333, out of Senate on Friday. This was after two more informational meetings held Monday and Wednesday. In all, both parties came up with 25 amendments to the original bill. Not all amendments were added, but it certainly created some lively discussion. On Friday, all the conflicts were resolved and the final Senate package was ready to go to the floor.

Education Committee was low-key this week, mostly addressing how to deal with truancy from K-12. It seems different communities throughout the state deal with the issue in diverse ways, with some areas having trouble getting a handle on how to combat the problem.

The mail-ballot bill hit the House Judicial Committee with real resistance. I did testify for the bill, along with many folks from my district. It was good to see all of you. I was disappointed in both the attitude of the committee chair and the atmosphere some of the proponents created.

Energy Committee dealt with two bills having to do with subsidizing, clean and renewable energy. One of the bills, essentially, was to make counties responsible for financing the work to be done on houses qualifying for its program. After hearing discussion from county treasurers, who were not in support of this bill, it did get tabled. Have a great week.

——

Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chestrer, can be emailed at [email protected].