Sen. Vincent lists future, sponsored and approved bills

A recent bill was passed 50-0 in the Montana Senate that provides further structure and funding to operations and management for Libby’s superfund site.

State Senator Chas Vincent sponsored the SB 315, which provides further structure to a previous bill he passed last legislative session. The bill appropriates $600,000 per year, for 10 years, to Montana’s operation and management of Libby’s superfund site.

“This structure is necessary to ensure that these monies be used as they were intended — to mitigate costs to Lincoln County residents as we implement the institutional controls that will accompany state and local management,” Vincent wrote in an email.

According to Vincent, the bill will also create a liaison that will be picked by the Governor from a list of three individuals Lincoln County commissioners nominate.

This individual will be dedicated to coordinating between the county, state and federal government and will report to an oversight board consisting of the Director of DEQ, a Lincoln County Commissioner and a Lincoln County resident.

The 65th Legislative session in Montana has met the halfway mark, and all general bills garnering a majority vote have been transmitted from the House to the Senate (and vice-versa) for further consideration, Vincent said. Other legislation such as revenue bills, referendum and chamber specific resolutions have a later transmittal deadline.

Vincent also provided a list of bills that he’s introduced and passed through the Montana Senate, as well as a brief description he wrote:

SB 281

The Fire Suppression Account is a reserve fund to pay for wildfire costs in our state, and has a balance of approximately $70 million. In 2013, the legislature gave discretionary authority to DNRC for use of this fund to purchase fire suppression equipment for local cooperatives, help landowners improve their property’s fire resilience through fuel reduction (logging) efforts and assist the USFS in federal land management designed to reduce the risk of high intensity, catastrophic wildfire. SB 281 requires $5 million to be spent biannually on these efforts and expands the focus of these resources to also include assisting collaborative efforts such as the Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Coalition. Collaborative efforts that have county commission participation (such as the KFSC) will be able to access up to 5 percent of the bi-annual spending to help assist the USFS in pushing active management of our public lands during the NEPA process, and help defend them in the courtroom. SB 281 passed the Senate 45-5.

SB 314

This bill will allow, as long as individuals are being ‘safe and prudent’, for a passenger to be legal on a four wheeler and for a youth under the age of 12 to ride their ATV on a public, gravel road if accompanied by an adult. It will also repeal the requirement to have your ATV ‘street legal’ unless you are driving on pavement. SB 314 passed the Senate 44-6.

SB 46

Currently Secure Rural School funding is sent to the state before being distributed to counties within 30 days of the state receiving the federal payment. SB 46 reduces this time to five business days. SB 46 passed the Senate 50-0

SB 28

Today, if you are going to appeal a DNRC water right decision, your only venue for your appeal is District Court. This legislation will give an appellant a choice of venue; either District Court or the Water Court. In a situation where there are multiple objectors choosing different venues, the District Court in which the water right is located will determine the venue.

SB 48

If the new Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule filed in the Federal Register by the EPA on June 29, 2015 is successfully defended by the federal government, it will represent the largest federal expansion of jurisdiction since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. Approximately 92 percent of Montana will be under the jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers and EPA for any land disturbance that would be determined as hydrologically connected to navigable waters, which is the delineating factor between what is state water, and what is ‘Waters of the U.S.’. SB 48 would direct the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to begin the assumption of the dredge and fill (404 process) program, should the WOTUS rule be upheld at the USSC. This would give Montana state primacy over the permitting of these actions rather than the Corps of Engineers. SB 48 passed the Senate 35-11.

SB 279

This legislation will require legislative staff to provide the legislator with important information prior to a bill’s introduction in a legislative session. Every session several bills are introduced that have been introduced several times in past sessions that either come very close to passing, or fail miserably for reasons that might not be obvious on first glance. I’m proposing that a legislator be provided a five session history (10 years) of a policy proposal, if applicable, to a legislator before they make the final decision to submit it for consideration. This information will help inform a legislator of what to expect in a hearing to better prepare themselves, perhaps illuminate what might be necessary for the proposal to be successful, or it just might save everyone in the process precious time and energy by preventing a bad bill from being introduced. SB 279 passed the Senate 50-0.