Working on bills close to the end of the session

Week 16 was a marijuana-intensive week. Early in the week, we were given an overview of what was in the 260-some page SB-701. There were many questions and some of the last-minute requests were also addressed. Fortunately, a special committee was assigned to take care of the recreational part this issue.

When the medical marijuana bill came to be a couple sessions ago, it was assigned to the Tax Committee, of which I am a member. We had to figure out how to make a law that not only worked and made sense, but was also workable, all while addressing all the other bills that were assigned. It did not preclude the fact that marijuana is illegal in the federal government’s eyes.

This bill may or not affect my counties differently depending on the county in which you live. Hill County voted in support of the referendum to legalize recreational marijuana, which enables Hill County to have retail outlets. Or by a vote of the people, they can also say “no” to shops.

On the other hand, Liberty and Chouteau counties voted against the resolution to legalize marijuana. These two counties will have to have a vote of the people to be able to have any retail shops for these products.

SB-701 is a very comprehensive bill and I have to hand it to the committee for the work they have done. While it may not be perfect, as with the medical marijuana bill I worked on, time will show us any issues needing to be addressed.

Another big, big issue filling my phone to the point I could not get messages I needed: HB-702 and HB-703. These are bills to not allow businesses to require the experimental COVID vaccine for employment. It seems Benefis Hospital out of Great Falls was doing this. When the first version of HB-702 was introduced, the hospitals, rest homes and assisted living folks were calling explaining how it made their programs not work. It was amended to take care of most of those issues and passed out of the Senate. HB-703 still had some restrictions that made doing business by these previously mentioned entities very difficult; it failed.

As it stands now, all the loose ends will be tied up and taken care of the week you are reading this as the 67th Legislature is scheduled to adjourn this week. Take care and I will see you at home.

——

Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, can be emailed at Russ.Tempel@mtleg.gov