Dismayed voices are heard on line regarding votes cast on house bills concerning undocumented immigrants. Even the word RINO has been attached to Lake County representatives.
It is sometimes hard to understand why those we trust vote the way they do. Politics and legislating is complicated. Too many implications embedded in each bill? A concerned constituent asked a very pertinent question:
“The Gallatin Valley Sentinel says you voted against the HB 536 that blocks illegals from working in Montana. I was wondering why? I’d rather hear your side before I make a decision. I think that it should be illegal to hire illegal aliens but maybe I am missing something?
- When I presented my bill on not allowing illegals to drive in MT with licenses issued by the 20 States that provide them licenses willy-nilly, Democrat Representative Stafman, unbeknownst to me, had his ‘Driver Privilege Card’ moving forward in a separate committee.
- When Rep Stafman heard my presentation, he asked about allowing Driver Privilege Cards, and I told him I would not be in favor of that unless the people who received them were proven to be in the United States legally.
- Rep Stafman stated he would amend his bill accordingly and support my bill, and I needed his support to get my bill out of committee and across the floor–both of which happened, and I brief the Senate on my bill next Wednesday.
- Stafman’s bill went from dealing ‘Privilege Cards’ out to everyone who wanted one to only issuing them to people who are in the United States legally, which is a huge movement from where he was towards my position. There are still some amendments we will need to make to his bill for sure, and I discussed that with him yesterday–as did the Attorney General. Those changes are coming or his bill will die in the Senate. His bill still has a few errors in it that likely came from his rush to make it compatible, and I will continue working on that today. This cake is not baked yet.
Linda: If you read the bill, it punishes companies by taking away their license at first offense for 6 months and punishments get progressively worse – the bill would shut down contractors and other companies – I agree with the premise of the bill but the penalties were way too harsh – we have non-citizens working at varying degrees of legality even in our schools – that is why I could not support this bill.
We see how important it is to follow the processes in the legislature. Read the bills and give your input in hearings to possibly affect changes in wordings before the bills are even put to the vote. We should not jump to conclusions that our representatives have abandoned us the way the Out of Line Nine did.
More grumbling about another bill. This time SB 473. This bill seems to be perpetuating the notion of climate change as a phenomenon that mankind is responsible for. The bill is titled “Prohibit weather modification”. Cloud seeding is known to be done particularly in China. Modifying weather where you may improve conditions in one area but likely affect others negatively cannot be a good thing. But should we actually have bills that help uphold narratives that portray natural developments as manmade? Does anyone have evidence that the condensation trails we see at 30,000 ft above Montana contain chemicals?
