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The Montana State Capitol building in Helena.
Four newly established advisory commissions will make recommendations to Montana’s governor on how to spend more than $1.5 billion of federal pandemic relief funds.
The governor’s office Wednesday announced the commissions, made up of state lawmakers and appointees from the executive branch. They will focus on proposals to fund infrastructure, communications, economic stabilization and health projects and programs.
State lawmakers earlier this year created the commissions along with
a framework for allocating the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. The commissions will review grant applications and proposals within that framework and make recommendations to Governor Greg Gianforte on which should be funded.
A few dozen of the 721 bills that passed the Montana Legislature this year grabbed the public’s rapt attention hot-button social issue bills and big-dollar spending measures that prompted headlines and drew, in some cases, thousands of public comments as lawmakers wrangled over their fates.
Most of the state’s new laws, however, took far quieter paths en route to the hallowed chapters of Montana Code Annotated.
A tally of public comments produced by legislative staff, reflecting web and phone messages sent to lawmakers through the Legislature’s information services desk, indicates there were more than 127,000 individual comments on the 1,313 bills that were considered over the course of the 2021 session. The lion’s share of those comments, two-thirds, dealt with only 50 high-profile measures.
May 13, 2021
HELENA, Mont. The 2021 Montana legislative session will be remembered as one of the state’s most consequential as a Republican-led legislature and governor’s office passed new laws restricting abortions, lowering taxes and regulating marijuana.
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But the debate over those and other highly publicized issues may have caused other meaningful legislation related to health care to slip off the public’s radar. Here are five substantial health-related policies that emerged from the recently ended session. They include bills that Gov. Greg Gianforte has signed or is expected to sign into law.
1. The permanent expansion of telehealth
The bills include:
HB 66 Rep. Terry Moore (R â Billings) Reauthorize securities restitution fund
HB 112 Rep. John Fuller (R - Whitefish) Require interscholastic athletes to participate under sex assigned at birth
HB 233 Rep. Fred Anderson (R - Great Falls) Revise funding for students with disabilities
HB 247 Rep. Marta Bertoglio (R â Clancy) Revise motor vehicle fleet registration
HB 257 Rep. Jedediah Hinkle (R â Belgrade) Revise laws relating to government mandates and businesses
HB 273 Rep. Derek Skees (R â Kalispell) Eliminate restrictions on nuclear facility development
HB 336 Rep. Brandon Ler (R â Savage) Interstate cooperative meatpacking compact
HB 426 Rep. Dennis Lenz (R - Billings) Revise laws regarding interactions between DPHHS and child and family ombudsman