- [Jackie] Happening now on The Rundown: a busy week in Helena with heated hearings, dead bills revived in new forms, and the second session bill being signed into law; and I hit the road up to the Hi-Line to follow the action on the Keystone XL Pipeline.

- We could help get this message out and change Biden's mind.

- I'm Jackie Coffin, and The Rundown Capitol Report starts now.

The Rundown is made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

The Rundown Capital Report takes place primarily in Helena, which is the original land of the Salish, Pondera, Blackfeet, Shoshoni, Bannock and Obselica people.

Welcome, and thank you for joining me for another installment of The Rundown Capitol Report.

You caught me in my office, putting the whole thing together and there really is so much to talk about this week.

Governor Gianforte signed another bill into law.

This bill, HB 102 is a controversial campus carry bill, which has been called the most wide open gun bill on college campuses in the country.

There were also some very heated discussions on the legislation related to LGBTQ rights and unions.

I also step out of the Capitol, to follow the governor up to the Hi-Line for a tour of Keystone XL Pipeline related sites.

Let's begin, starting with where we are in the legislative process.

Week seven of the session just wrapped up and this coming week is the last full week left until the transmittal deadline, which is when all bills must have passed through one chamber and onto the other.

So, all house bills must have been heard in front of their committees, passed onto the floor for second and third readings, and been sent over to the Senate to begin the process again.

This is vice versa for bills in the Senate, ready for the House.

The transmittal deadline on March 3rd, marks the halfway point in the 67th legislative session, which by our constitution cannot meet longer than 90 days.

Also, per the Montana constitution, the only thing that the legislature has to do is pass a budget, which is being hammered out through various committees.

We'll take a closer look at that in upcoming shows.

Right now, we'll head over to the governor's office where the second bill of the 67th session becomes law.

- For joining us today for the signing of HB 102, our second amendment protected right to keep and bear arms, is part of Montana and our nation's rich history, and we have a responsibility to protect it.

The gun control policies coming out of the new administration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, target law-abiding gun owners and fail to keep guns out of criminals' hands.

Criminals don't care about background checks, criminals don't care about gun bans, criminals don't care about limits on magazine capacity, criminals don't care about safe zones or gun-free zones.

Gun control measures don't prevent criminals from perpetuating violence or crime.

Gun control measures step on the rights of law-abiding citizens.

And our second amendment is very clear: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Every law abiding Montanan should be able to defend themselves and their loved ones.

That's why today, I'm signing HB 102 into law.

This new constitutional carry law will simplify a confusing patchwork of concealed carry laws into a single standard, throughout our state.

This new law will allow law-abiding Montana gun owners to carry a concealed firearm for self-defense, throughout our state, without written authorization from the government.

And we must allow Montanans to defend themselves.

- [Jackie] House Bill 102 carried by representative Seth Berglee, a Republican from Joliet, allows Montanans to bring guns into a lot of places they previously couldn't, through concealed carry and open carry; that includes college campuses.

- Montanans have a long history of being independent, self-sufficient and providing for their own defense.

The idea of self-defense has been a pillar in our society since even before the founding of our country.

It's a right that's given by God, and granted in the constitution.

It's my pleasure to bring House Bill 102, recognizing that the citizens of Montana have the ability to defend themselves, and I trust them with that responsibility.

House Bill 102 does several things: it allows for people to carry concealed firearms, with the same amount of training in the same areas, in areas they can already carry open carry; and it erases the invisible line around our colleges, and allows adults to include veterans that have served overseas to carry on college campuses.

Second amendment has been a priority for the Republican majority and I thank governor Gianforte for signing this bill.

- [Jackie] The Montana university system has not allowed guns to be carried in classrooms, dorms and campus as a whole in the past, citing overall safety student wellbeing and mental health and facilities' concerns.

This new law has been called the most wide open campus carry bill in the country.

It passed through both chambers quickly, but was not supported by any legislators, who districts cover the universities.

- In that star nine, put your hand up to be in.

- [Jackie] And was opposed by the Montana university system.

- Attempting to help people, who live and work.

- [Jackie] Associated students of university of Montana, - And study on Montana's college and university - [Jackie] Associated students of Montana State University, law enforcement and mental health providers in the cities of Bozeman and Missoula, where our two largest universities are based.

The bill also allows for concealed carry, wherever open carry is currently permitted, as well as in bars, restaurants and other businesses; though business owners do have the right to prohibit carry in their establishments.

HB 102 does not allow carry in K-12 schools and certain federal places like TSA zones and airports, correctional facilities and more.

The new law takes effect immediately, except for the part affecting the university systems, which takes effect on June 1st.

Now on to legislation currently moving through the process, including a bill that drew a lot of attention this week, establishing right-to-work.

- Clearly, not only is right-to-work the morally right thing to do, but protecting this freedom will also help Montana workers and the Montana economy.

- [Jackie] Right-to-work laws are state laws that changed the relationships between unions, workers, and employers.

The main takeaway is that they don't require union membership for employees in unionized industries, which range from teaching to nursing, a wide variety of trades and manufacturing work and more.

And right-to-work laws say workers don't have to pay towards union dues and fees.

13% of Montana workers are represented by unions and often getting a job in a unionized industry requires union membership.

Union-represented workers pay for the cost of representation, usually through membership fees.

In right-to-work states, which Montana is not, union membership is not required as a condition of employment in certain industries, and employees do not have to pay those union dues.

This effectively weakens unions and collective bargaining.

While there are multiple bills this session, implementing right-to-work laws, the hearing this week was on House Bill 251, carried by representative Caleb Hinkle.

- A higher hourly rate than the original deli.

- [Jackie] A Republican from Belgrade.

- Right-to-work law simply ensures that no worker is compelled to support a labor union, he or she does not wish to join voluntarily.

Mr. Chairman, I believe that there are certain liberties that can't be bargained away at the negotiation table, between labor and management, and that includes workers' individual right to decide for themselves whether a union merits their financial support.

Unfortunately, right now in Montana, workers can still be fired for refusing to join or support a union.

HB251, the Right-to-work Bill would end that.

Workers would be free to choose whether they wanted to pay union dues or not.

I believe that no organization should have the power to keep an employee from working, simply because the employer refuses to join or support, or financially support that organization, especially if that organization has an agenda or political fuel goals, he or she may be completely opposed to.

People have many reasons for not wanting to pay the union treasuries, but it should be up, left up, to the individual workers to decide.

And the fact is most people agree that forced unionism is wrong.

Scientific polls consistently show that nearly 80% of Americans believe it's wrong to force workers to pay a union boss, just to keep a job.

- I'm a card-carrying, dues-paying, rank of make Montana Laborers' Local 1686 of LIUNA.

I live here, I own property here, I work here, I pay taxes here and I vote here.

What doesn't belong here is this push for right-to-work.

It does not originate here, nor does it help the workers of Montana.

Unions have helped build Montana, creating safe work environments and fair wages.

You have the freedom to join a union or not, but our ability to collectively bargain benefits all Montana workers.

There are plenty of jobs, either way.

Chairman, committee members, I ask you to oppose this bill.

Coming after unions during this extremely difficult economic times, not only benefits, will not benefit any of us.

And only suits the national agenda of outside groups, who could care less about Montana, thank you.

- Thank you, Mr. Wrangler, next opponent.

- My name is Justin McEwen, and I'm a field representative for the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1.

- [Official] Could you spell McEwen?

- M-C-E-W-E-N. Of the beautiful state of Montana.

I have been a union member for over 20 years.

I have worked union, non-union in my life, but union is the only one that ever supplied training, health and welfare, and retirement for me and my family.

The backbone of the middle-class is based on these blue-collar union wage jobs, that support local communities.

Unions bargain for a fair contract for workers.

Right-to-work legislation would forbid local Montana contractors to be competitive, from out-of-state companies, who pay their worker workforce far less than the local prevailing rate, that we rely on to feed our families.

The only result, excuse me, the only result of right-to-work is widening of the income inequality.

This is not about the right-to-work of workers, it is about supporting corporate America.

This is about destroying the only stop-gap between middle-class and poverty, our right to unionize.

On behalf of the working men and women of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers 1, I urge you to please reject this proposal legislation, which is bad for working families, bad for the community and bad for the great of state of Montana, thank you.

- [Jackie] HB 251 has not yet been voted on in the House Business and Labor Committee.

Stepping out of the Capitol, this week, I headed up to the Hi-Line, to follow governor Greg Gianforte on a three-stop tour, in Keystone XL Pipeline country.

After his inauguration in January, President Joe Biden issued an executive order, rescinding the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would transport 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil to refineries in the Gulf Coast of Texas every single day.

And as you can see from the map, it cuts through Montana, running from the border of Saskatchewan, diagonally down through the southeast corner of our state.

The project proposed in 2008 has gone through a lot of ups and downs, with permits being issued and rescinded through different administrations, and has been litigated through several courts.

Cutting through some of Montana's most rural counties, it has received a strong support from small communities.

And I heard that as I stopped in Malta this trip and in Baker on trips prior.

But it has also been fiercely opposed by Montana's tribes, as it impacts the Fort Belknap and Fort Peck reservations.

And these tribes, among others, have taken it to court.

On the governor's Friday tour, our first stop was to a Keystone XL pipe yard, 27 miles north of Sacco in Phillips County, where we heard from construction officials from Barnard Construction, the Bozeman-based company that has construction contracts for some of the sections of the pipeline.

- Oh, this is a 36 inch line pipe that was gonna be laid from a Canadian line, all the way to across the Missouri river.

This is what they consider pipe yard 1.

Well, hopefully we're trying to get a message out to all the locals and folks about the ramifications of this project being canceled.

And, you know, hear our plead of why we need to get this thing back on track again and what it does for our energy independence as a country and, you know, how it, how this thing has been designed and changed and morphed into the most environmentally safe way to transport fossil fuels.

So, my hope is that with governor Gianforte's help, we could help get this message out and change Biden's mind, and the anti-fossil-fuel folks.

- There is no good reason why this pipe is sitting here and it's not going in the ground.

And there's no good reason why Montanans have lost their jobs, and are sitting at home right now, except that President Biden is trying to make a political statement and pandering to environmental extremists.

I urge him, because of the 1,000 people that lost their jobs right here; because we care about the environment, we wanna get this fuel to market in a safe way, to reverse his decision and allow this pipeline to go forward.

- [Jackie] I also had a chance to talk to the governor about his tour, his harsh rebuke of President Biden's executive order and his calls for the project to be put back in action.

- Well, I think it's critically important that we see the real impact of this decision, that president Biden has made; the jobs that are lost, the impact on these communities.

This pipeline would have generated over in property taxes, to pay our teachers, to pay our law enforcement, to build infrastructure.

And it was all lost, with the stroke of a pen.

- [Jackie] Are you planning to visit any of the reservation towns nearby that are celebrating the whole thing of this, this project?

- Well, everyone needs a seat at the table, and their voice should be heard.

This project has been vetted over many, many years to make sure that we protect the environment.

This pipeline is the safest way to get fossil fuels to market.

When this pipeline shuts down, the oil and gas goes on trucks and on rail, which is much more likely to danger the environment.

- [Jackie] And, but Native American tribes are still celebrating this decision.

What would you say to them, in trying to reverse it?

- All voices need to be heard, but there is very broad support in all the communities along this line.

We need to build this pipeline.

- [Jackie] And what power do you have as a governor, in reaching President Biden to reverse this?

- Well, we've communicated repeatedly with the White House, and I urge him to not pander to the environmental extremists on the coast, and let us make decisions that are safe for the environment and good for our economy.

- [Jackie] Our next stop was the nearby coal ponds, to talk about the impact on energy and electricity rates.

- It was gonna keep our rates steady, for the consumers and now might have an increase later, and.

- They've done their due diligence, over and over and over and over again.

And this is a huge opportunity for jobs, it's a huge opportunity for a tax base, huge opportunity for all these small towns that are dying.

And it's just, it's unfortunate that they aren't giving it an opportunity.

- What can we do, to have you reconsider this decision and how it affects all our lives?

That's what I would like to get out of this is, what avenues can we take to just have it, have you take a second look?

- [Jackie] Following this, the governor headed to Glasgow for a round table discussion on the last stop of the tour, but I drove to the Fort Belknap Reservation and later had a zoom call with Fort Belknap Tribal President, Andy Welk, Jr. - We're located in North Central Montana, just, you know the northern end of the reservation, is along the Hi-Line, actually the northern border is the Milk River.

You know, Harlem is just outside the northwest corner of the reservation.

The northeast corner is Dodson, and you know, on the southern end of the reservation is the Little Rocky Mountains and the Missouri River Breaks.

So, in that area, North Central Montana.

- [Jackie] President Welk explains that the tribes have some serious concerns about the environmental impacts the pipeline could have on their water and land, as well as concerns about destruction of cultural sites and infringement of longstanding treaty rights.

- This goes back to our treaty rights, and that's the basis of our argument here in Fort Belknap, and even inspiring litigation.

This isn't just an about an environmental or an economic issue.

This is about our treaties, and about an agreement that was made with the United States.

And you'll talk to tribal leaders anywhere, or people that talk about tribal sovereignty, and I, as the president of our council, our former tribal leaders, our tribal leaders throughout the country are always gonna stand up for tribal sovereignty in our treaties.

And so, that's the point here why we don't feel like this process has respected our tribal sovereignty, you know.

We are relentlessly fighting, you know, to protect and preserve our cultural resources through our treaty rights.

And, you know, we'll continue to do that.

And with our litigation, that's been the basis of our argument, so, and that goes beyond reservation boundaries, because when you, when you go back to those treaties, those agreements were to protect, you know, the tribes made an agreement, you know, and then they were placed on reservations.

But part of those agreements was to protect our historical territory, our historical sacred sites through our treaties.

And that's our point here in Fort Belknap, even with Keystone, you know, we're concerned about our water, we're concerned about our sacred sites that are in the path of the Keystone Pipeline and we're going to do what we ever have, we're going to do what we ever have, we're going to do, excuse me what we have to do to protect that here.

I think, you know, just people need to understand that, that tribal governments and tribes, you know, we're not a racial group.

I heard that even in an article lately, again.

We're not a racial group, we're a political group and I don't know what's going to happen with litigation.

It's possible, you know, TC energy might file litigation.

I don't know.

Maybe other stakeholders will file litigation but if they do, we will continue on with our litigation, even if we have to file as a third party intervener in any new litigation that comes about, and we're just gonna continue to take a stand on our treaty rights, as far as Keystone is concerned.

- [Jackie] And in the last month, since the executive order was issued, and the Montana delegation's advocacy for its reversal, Fort Belknap has felt left out of the discussion.

- If there's anything that's, I guess, a slap in the face, I'll repeat myself again, is the fact that the governor didn't reach out to us, here in Fort Belknap.

I don't know if he reached out to Fort Peck, and it's possible that I don't know if the governor drove up in this area or he flew up here, but it's possible that he drove right through or right by Fort Belknap without even an acknowledgement.

And that's a real slap in the face, if we're going to put it that way, because I'm just a phone call away, as is our council.

And getting back to the fact that we have a government to government relationship with the United States and the state of Montana, and he's very aware of that.

And, you know, I hope if he's going to sit down with stakeholders and their concerns and citizens of Montana, or different governments or different groups, he's going to extend that offer to Fort Belknap also, because we've got concerns about Keystone also.

And I think that's his responsibility as our governor, to sit down with us also and address our concerns.

- That's all the time we have this week on The Rundown Capitol Report.

We're almost to the halfway mark of session, and I want to thank you all for joining me week after week, here on The Rundown.

If you would like to get in touch with me, my email is jackie@montanapbs.org, I'd really love to hear from you.

See you next Sunday on The Rundown.

The rundown is made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends and values of importance to Montanans.

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