Montana House Bill 291 looks to alter the standards when determining air quality in the Treasure State. The legislation aims to limit the authority of the Department of Environmental Quality and local air pollution control programs in Montana from adopting air quality standards more stringent than federal requirements. In other words the bill would force Montana to keep its air quality standards in line with the federal government.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday prohibiting transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports and members of the Montana Legislature did too at the state level. House Bill 300 passed a preliminary vote on party lines and lawmakers will vote today whether to send the bill to the Senate. The Legislature has passed similar bills in past sessions but all have been temporarily stalled or struck down by the courts.
Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park both welcomed the second highest number of visitors on record last year. According to a report by the National Park Service the popularity of Montana’s two national parks helps anchor the state’s recreation economy which in 2023 provided a more than $1.3 billion economic boost to communities near the parks.
In a recent legislative hearing to help shape the state health department’s budget tribal leaders traveled from across Montana and told lawmakers they wanted to reinstate a tribal relations manager position last held by Lesa Evers an enrolled citizen of the Blackfeet Tribe who retired in 2023. The position which provided a high-ranking link between the department and tribal governments has since been left vacant by the department and was eventually removed entirely.
President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs against Canada and Mexico are now on hold for a month. Canada has offered $1.3 billion Canadian dollars for border security and Mexico agreed to station 10,000 members of her country’s National Guard on its border with the United States. By agreeing to the pause Trump has been able to tell his supporters that he brokered a smart deal and to declare victory in addressing illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Plans for a six-story hotel in downtown Bozeman are up for public notice this month. The Canopy by Hilton is proposed by a Denver-based developer and is intended to be a boutique lifestyle hotel. Plans are for 190 rooms a coffee shop and meeting spaces on the ground floor and a rooftop pool restaurant and bar on the sixth floor.
The Rimrock Foundation in Billings has agreed to pay the state to settle a Medicaid fraud case in which the non-profit substance abuse provider billed Medicaid for services provided to inmates at the Yellowstone County Detention Facility. Rimrock will pay the state $58,874 to cover the $47,099 worth of ineligible Medicaid charges and penalties and or damages.
House Bill 131 which cuts the maximum duration of unemployment benefits from 24 to 20 weeks made it through a second House reading Wednesday. The bill will go through a final House reading today and will then move over to the Senate. It comes after the 2023 state legislature passed a bill cutting unemployment benefits from 28 to 24 weeks.
The Montana VA Health Care System will recognize and honor hospitalized Veterans all next week during National Salute to Veteran Patients. It will facilitate visits to hospitalized Vets promoting volunteer opportunities and accepting Valentine’s Day cards for them.
The Spanish Peaks Mountain Club next door to Big Sky Resort could soon be the second Montana ski area to use treated wastewater for snowmaking. The Department of Environmental Quality has made a tentative decision to grant the club’s application for a permit. In 2021 the neighboring Yellowstone Club received approval for the state’s first use of wastewater for snowmaking.
