Grandsons in the Legislature

What a great week! Judy and I hosted our daughter's twins, grandsons Bauer and Brant, at the house. They were both pages at the Senate for Week 3, along with the Evans brothers from Helena. All four boys are football players and 4-H members, so they had much in common, to the point the page director mixed up the families. This week was to be 4-H week for legislators and local 4-H'ers, we have shared an annual breakfast the last two sessions. This year was virtual and felt much different. It is an event I have looked forward to every year, but due to COVID it had to be canceled like many other events, such as local chamber dinners. These venues typically afford myself and others an opportunity to see and meet a large number of my constituents in one place.

I do have a couple bills moving through the process. SB5 is a long-overdue Otto Fossen Montana Memorial Highway bill. When passed, it will dedicate a section of U.S. Highway 2 from the Hill County line moving west for roughly three miles. Undersheriff Fossen was shot and killed in the line of duty Oct. 5, 1957, at the Joplin exit to Montana 224 from U.S. Highway 2. He had just picked up a young man who had stolen a car in Havre. All the documents about this were scanned and are archived with SB5 if you are interested in knowing more about Otto's heroic efforts that day.

SB9 is another bill I am working on, though it is not as far through the workings. Being a safety advocate and motorcycle enthusiast, I am proposing what is called a motorcycle filtering bill. This will allow motorcycles to move ahead when traffic is stopped or going less than 10 mph, which will make the road safer for motorcycles and cars alike.

In our tax committee, most bills have been cleaning up language and getting rid of outdated laws.

One bill to keep an eye on is SB85, the point of the bill is to take wind generation to the same level of taxes as other generation types. I have received emails stating how over-subsidized by the federal government wind energy is and others saying this bill will break the wind industry. I am sure there is a workable solution to fix the bill. At this time, I am watching and waiting on more information forth coming.

As we entered the Capitol Wednesday, it was evident that security was heightened due to the FBI warning. This was a nationwide threat on state capitols. Thankfully, there were no issues.

As always, stay safe and have a great week.

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State Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, can be emailed at [email protected]