At the end of a press conference Thursday after the echoes of the final gavel rang through the House and Senate chambers, Republican lawmakers started asking where to get a copy of talking points to take back home.
For GOP members of all stripes, the list of party wins to show their constituents is long â from a slew of tax cuts and lifting regulations on businesses to reducing access to abortion and increasing places where firearms can be carried.
Majority Republicans came to Helena with a self-branded mandate after one of the most dominant election showings in years. They left last week claiming victory over the agenda laid out in January.Â
ROB CHANEY
As they come out of their hibernation dens this spring, Montana grizzly bears awaken to a churning political landscape.
Some of that will go on display Thursday and Friday at the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committeeâs Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem subcommittee meeting, held in cyberspace.
As the wildlife managers overseeing roughly 1,000 grizzlies inhabiting the mountains between Glacier National Park and Missoula convene, they will have fresh exhortations from the Montana Legislature and the stateâs congressional delegation to consider.
They must also absorb the executive shifts from Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, in contrast with the federal reverse of President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden.
Montana Launches a War on Wolves sierraclub.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sierraclub.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The looming redistricting fight in Montana spilled over into the Legislature on Tuesday, as Republican lawmakers rewrote and quickly passed a bill to direct the work of the stateâs redistricting commission â a move that one Democratic lawmaker decried as âfully unconstitutional.â
The bill now goes to Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte s desk.
With census data finally trickling out of the federal government after a delay caused by the pandemic, Montana s five-person Districting and Apportionment Committee is tasked with drawing new political districts â including a new Congressional district, the boundaries of which must be in place by the 2022 elections.
âI think people are concerned that we might not get fair districts, we might get some very gerrymandered districts, and this would just make sure the districts are drawn fairly,â Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, said during Tuesday s free conference committee on House Bill 506.
Grizzly bears should be delisted from the Endangered Species Act in the entirety of the state of Montana and delisting should be exempt from judicial review, the Montana Legislature declared in a resolution passed Friday.
Senate Joint Resolution 18 brought by Sen. Bruce âButchâ Gillespie, R-Kevin, passed both chambers of the Legislature primarily along party lines with majority Republicans in support. Resolutions have no statutory effect, but lawmakers often pass them to indicate positions on federal policies, to commemorate historic events or support programs around the state.
The Legislature has passed resolutions in past sessions encouraging delisting of grizzly bears, which were listed as threatened in 1973. Management of the bears is one of the biggest wildlife issues facing the state as populations of the bruins continue to grow and ranges expand.