2019 Legislature Report

The legislative session is now officially over. We finished last Thursday, so now the results get discussed, assessed, and scrutinized. Many of the results can not be “fairly” evaluated for days, months, or even years, but we are all hopeful to have made the right decisions. At this point, the blame game also kicks into gear. Again, I say time will tell the true story and we don’t need the blame game like we see and hear on the national level. My decisions were made to try and do the best for my constituents and Montanans, not for a rating or score.

Some issues that I feel were beneficial to our community and all of Montana are HB 212 (rural teacher recruitment), HB 70 (increase timber harvest), SB 83 (reduce pharmacy costs), HB 387 (education CTE, advanced opportunities), HB 172 (increase veteran services), HB 553 and 652 ( short and long term infrastructure), HB 661 (money for rural airport infrastructure), HB 658 ( Medicaid reform and integrity), SB 125 (reduce health insurance cost via forming high risk pool), and HB 2 (structurally balanced Montana budget while cutting 200 overhead full time employees).

These bills truly took a cooperative effort to put Montana first. Republicans can be proud to say we worked for solutions to provide healthcare reforms, enhanced educational opportunities, reasonable regulatory revision, infrastructure investments that have be extended for far too long increasing those costs, and ended with a balanced budget without pulling at your wallets.

Thank you again for allowing me to serve you.

Representative Denley M. Loge, HD 14