Legislative Report

3-10-23

As noted last week, transmittal break began Friday March 3rd. Sunday afternoon I was able to attend a legislative forum in Miles City sponsored by their local Patriot Group. It was great to see a full house at the local VFW and be able to join Representatives Gregg Kmetz and Gary Parry. Great citizen questions and conversation was mixed with presentations by the legislators.

It was nice to have a couple of quiet days at home before heading back on Wednesday. Thursday morning the process of reporting by the six Appropriations subcommittees to the full committee began. Doing this involves the subcommittee chairs reporting the first several weeks of agency presentations on their 24-25 budget requests. The agency representatives also participate in this process and fill in the details. Thursday we heard Section B, Department of Health and Human Services while getting a start on Section D, Justice and Corrections. Sitting through these presentations it’s hard not to think about how much money poor decisions by individuals, costs society.

Today, Friday, we started at 7:30 a.m., finishing up D before I was able to present the budgets of Section C, Natural Resources and Transportation. We were able to start on Section E, Education, another big budget department. At noon we broke for a short lunch before our first floor session since returning

It’s been an interesting session so far and that continued with our return. The notion that we have lots of money to spend has infected the minds of many who told their neighbors and constituents that they are conservative. I am glad to be able to report, that doesn’t include your representatives from Eastern Montana. There just needs to be more of us!

I’m going to call that a report for this short week. We are gaveling in for a floor session at 8:00 tomorrow, followed by an appropriations gathering. After that, I’m going to join Alex, Carmen Jett and Kip for a ride on a historic train from Helena over McDonald Pass to Avon and back. It’s something BN typically does during the Session for legislators and families that wasn’t done last session due to the virus. Should be fun!

Call, write, text, email, I appreciate hearing from you!

For Freedom, Representative Jerry Schillinger, (406) 974-2478, P.O. 200400 Helena 59601, Jerry.Schillinger@legmt.gov

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