Half-time

Today marks the beginning of the transmittal break for legislators and the half-way point of the legislative session. This is the point that most bills have to have passed through at least one house of the legislature and be passed to the other in order to continue.

During a press conference today, where Democrats talked about the status of the session thus far, Sen. Minority Leader Carol Williams said “I think it’s half-time too, but there’s no score, and they’ve gone wide right on a few field goal attempts.” Williams went on to talk about the wasted time and frivolous bills presented by the Republicans. She excoriated them for losing their focus on the things that actually matter to Montanans, such as job creation and economic development, and instead pursing bills that interfere in private medical decisions, toe the line of succession from the United States and legalize spear hunting.

Sen. Kim Gillan expanded on this point when she said, “The great thing about going home, is that everyone, whether you’re Democrat or Republican, independent or whatever, we’re gonna get one big reality check, and I look forward to that!” She continued to talk about how the Republicans wasted this opportunity to build on Montana’s strengths and continue to make our state’s strong business climate, and instead pursued their own pet agendas.

While we hope the GOP does get a reality check and returns to Helena on Wednesday ready to focus on bringing jobs to the state and building Montana’s economy, however we’re realists. If they ignored the will of Montanans at the start of the session, they’ll likely ignore it now too, and instead continue to push their radical bills. Sen. Williams returned to her football metaphor to address this point and our Governor’s veto power, saying, “On our team, we have a quarter back on the second floor (the governor), that is going to be brought in in the fourth quarter.”

Readers of this blog should take the opportunity of transmittal break to reach out to their lawmakers and let them know their feelings about the progress of the legislative session thus far.