Legislative update

Working day 45 is fast approaching and the pace is picking up. It appears likely transmittal break will begin after session on Tuesday the 2nd. We will have the opportunity to dash home for a short break and be back in session March 8th.

This past week we saw some good bills pass the House and unfortunately, some, not get across the finish line. HB 415 is an example of a good bill that died, on a 50 – 50 tie vote, largely I believe, because of some misinformation on The Floor. 415 would protect citizens from being discriminated against in the workplace, schools, travel and more, based on vaccination status. We saw a familiar group of Republicans join all 33 Democrats to defeat this important bill. Rather than offering amendments on the floor to address any concerns opponents may have had, this important bill died, with the consolation of, maybe next time. Opponents of 415 have referred to “boogeymen”, I can assure you the dangers are real, as evidenced by recent proposals by Microsoft and the California Department of Education promoting vaccination passports that would “allow” children to participate in educational opportunities.

Some good bills that passed allowed prevailing wage rates to be calculated based on Miles City or Sidney. This is important because any government funded construction jobs have to be bid using prevailing wage rates that are currently calculated using Billings rates that can inflate the costs of projects in Eastern Montana by hundreds of thousands of dollars. This bill needs some help in the Senate to help the more outlying areas of the district. Currently, as you get away from Miles City or Sidney, the prevailing wage rate goes up. We also further clarified the issue of bison being livestock vs. “wild and/or free roaming.”

An important bill gaining approval is HB277, which is intended to introduce performance standards on state agencies. This bill is modeled after laws in neighboring states that is reportedly successful in helping taxpayers get more bang for our buck. Similarly, there have been a number of bills passed to reform the Department of Health and Human Services, especially in areas of child separation from families.

A bill I carried, HB 300, passed the House this week. This bill will allow school districts the opportunity to choose whether- or- not to use 8-15 passenger vans to transport students to activities. This is important because often times, especially in small schools like most of ours, there are small numbers traveling long distances in large busses. This gives local districts another tool to manage scarce resources.

Several bills have been passed that will reign in some recently unchecked executive abuses in regards to emergency powers. We have also passed a number of good bills that will make local health officials more accountable to local elected officials. This has been an interesting session, in large part, because of issues related to The Virus. There have certainly been some sad and unfortunate outcomes blamed on The Virus. It really doesn’t help to argue over a lot of the numbers, many of which don’t add up. There is one undeniable fact, and that is that about 99.7 % of all reported virus cases don’t result in death or even serious illness. Another indisputable fact is, many other serious health issues have gone untreated in a timely manner because of our preoccupation with The Virus. An additional casualty is freedom. Several bills have passed to limit liability potential for businesses, schools, medical facilities, and others, to hopefully encourage people to get back to normal daily lives.

Finally, on Saturday the 27th, we passed SB 140 that eliminates the judicial nominating commission process. Rather, the Governor will choose and appoint judges to fill vacancies, similar to the federal process. The Senate will then either confirm or reject the nominee.

As always, I appreciate you sharing your ideas with me to help make a better, more responsive State government. I am looking forward to jumping in my pickup for a quick trip home, hope to see some of you then!

For Freedom,

Representative Jerry Schillinger HD 37