Montana Politics: Latest News

This week, the Montana Legislature will hold its first hearing on what is likely to be a major issue during their session – proposals to expand access to preschool in the state.

United States Senator Jon Tester has announced who his guest will be for the State of the Union address: Briana Lamb of Missoula, a known advocate for missing and murdered indigenous women.

The Montana House Friday narrowly endorsed a bill requiring a two-thirds majority of both the House and Senate to enact a tax or fee increase, or new tax or fee.

The Republican addressed the legislature and spoke briefly with reporters about his priorities for Congress. 

State Insurance Commissioner Matt Rosendale unveiled his proposal Friday to crack down on practices by prescription-drug-benefit managers.

Montana Senate President Scott Sales of Bozeman said Thursday night that Republicans agree with Gov. Steve Bullock that the state’s economy is doing well, and getting better. But he said they have a different vision of how Montana should move forward.

In his final State of the State address, Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock made a strong pitch Thursday night for his top priorities of education and infrastructure funding and Medicaid expansion – and told lawmakers he won’t accept an inadequate state budget.

Governor Steve Bullock is delivering his State of the State address Thursday evening at the Capitol.

Republicans on a House panel Thursday voted to kill a measure that would create a $900,000-a-year fund to aid low-income Montanans with civil legal disputes.

On Wednesday, people from around Montana gave emotional testimony before a state House committee, about how they have been affected by what they call an “epidemic” of missing and murdered Native Americans — many of them women and children.

A Whitefish representative introduced a bill that would extend brewery hours across Montana.

Two Montana men who spent years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit testified Tuesday for a pair of bills that sponsors said would protect those falsely accused or convicted.

A bill that would make it illegal for doctors to help their patients take their own life had its first hearing at the state capitol Tuesday.

The New York Times reported this week that a former top aide to Gov. Steve Bullock, who resigned from the New York mayor’s office last year in the wake of sexual-harassment accusations, was also fired at the Democratic Governors Association in 2015 for the same reason, when Bullock was its chair.

A state senator Monday presented a bill to ask Montana voters whether they want to get rid of daylight-saving time in the state – but the bill ran into more opposition than support.

Senator Jon Tester has announced he is reintroducing the SURVIVE Act.

The effects of the shutdown were felt across the country— including in Great Falls.

A bill that is named after a Lame Deer woman is making its way through the Montana legislature.

A Democratic state senator from Missoula is sponsoring a bill that would require Montana restaurants to only distribute plastic straws to customers who ask for them.

Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen joined lawmakers at the State Capitol Friday, in support of a bill saying students cannot give consent for sexual relationships with school employees.

One of the biggest issues facing the state Legislature – whether to extend Montana’s Medicaid expansion program – will be the topic of MTN’s Face the State this Sunday.

Attorneys, judges and others turned out Friday to support a nearly $1 million-a-year proposed fund to aid low-income Montanans with civil legal disputes, saying it will help unclog an overburdened court system.

A Great Falls Republican lawmaker has sponsored a bill that would prohibit minors from texting and driving in Montana even when they are stopped in traffic.

Montana firefighters are hoping this year firefighters will get the coverage they need to protect those that get on-the-job illnesses.

Attorney General Tim Fox on Thursday became the second prominent Republican to enter Montana’s 2020 race for governor, vying for his party’s nomination to succeed term-limited Democrat Steve Bullock.

It’s only the third week of the 2019 Montana Legislature, but majority Republicans – and Democrats – have advanced two major funding bills, saying they want to move quickly on fundamental programs where they agree.

Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, and Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines are Montana’s most popular politicians on a statewide level, according to an MTN News-Montana State University post-election poll of state voters.

Republican voters largely came down against the top two ballot measures on Montana’s 2018 ballot, leading to their defeat, an MTN News-Montana State University post-election poll shows.

A proposed bill in the State Legislature would honor a fallen Broadwater County deputy by establishing the Mason Moore Memorial Highway.

A Montana state senator is throwing his support behind the effort to take grizzly bears off the endangered species list.