Legislature

The House Education Committee will hear testimony on a bill Wednesday that would give grants to school districts to create suicide prevention programs. The grants would come through the Office of Public Instruction. House Bill 265 would also create statewide requirements and a framework for the prevention programs.

The Montana House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on four gun control bills Tuesday morning, including House Bill 246, which would allow firearms on U.S. Postal Service property in Montana. The bill would override a federal rule that not only prohibits firearms inside a Post Office, but in the parking lot as well.

Montana lawmakers heard testimony for and against House Bill 268 Monday, which would make it a felony to purposefully or knowingly assault a health care provider or emergency responder. Perpetrators could spend 10 years in prison.

Montana lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow producers to be reimbursed for livestock killed by mountain lions. The Livestock Loss Board currently reimburses producers if they lose stock to grizzly bears and wolves. House Bill 286 would add mountain lions to the list of predators.

Distracted by the national political spectacle this past week? Lost track of the Montana Legislature? We've got you covered with UM journalist Michael Siebert's in-depth report on the issues debated during Week 3 of the 65th session.

In a bipartisan success, the Montana Senate advanced a package of bills last week that deal with everything from the parental rights of children conceived by rape to the very definition of “consent.”

State Rep. Barry Usher, R-Billings, says he is working on a new draft of his bicycle-safety bill, and it won’t include any restrictions on bicycles or pedestrians. His original bill draft would have banned bicyclists, pedestrians and people in wheelchairs from any two-lane road outside municipalities that did not have a paved shoulder.

Kalispell legislator Frank Garner wants the Legislature to mandate the safe and prudent distance between a bicycle and a passing vehicle, dependent upon the speed of the car or truck.

The state Department of Public Health of Human Service opposes a bill by Sen. Roger Webb to create a volunteer network of families that would take temporary guardianship of children whose parents request the help. The problem, DPHHS says, is that it includes no protections for the children.

In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police may not search the contents of a cell phone without a warrant in the United States. Republican state Rep. Daniel Zolnikov of Billings is sponsoring a bill that would extend that rule in Montana to any other device, like a laptop, iPad, or smartwatch.