Montana Senate advances vehicle, health and consumer bills; election judges and abortion-related measure fail

The Montana Senate spent its morning floor session advancing a range of bills on driver services, public health, consumer protections and municipal procedures while rejecting two politically charged proposals and leaving others under discussion.

Senators approved a sweeping motor-vehicle update (Senate Bill 380) that reorganizes parts of Title 61, expands electronic transactions for vehicle services and lets counties provide more driver services; sponsor Senator Don Vance described it as a large “cleanup” needed after moving to a new back-end system. The measure cleared second reading on a recorded vote of 48-2.

The chamber also passed a bill updating Montana’s clean indoor air law (Senate Bill 390) to add e-cigarette aerosol to the law’s scope. Sponsor Senator Lydia Curti said the 20-year-old statute predated vaping and that “e‑cigarette aerosol is harmful,” and the Senate approved SB390 on second reading, 38-12.

Other measures approved on second reading included:

- A ban on including packaging material in food ground for swine feed (SB414), 41-9. - A consumer-facing measure allowing merchants to charge and disclose a capped credit-card transaction fee (SB528), 29-21 after extended debate about whether the fee ultimately falls on renters and small customers. - Confirmation that lodging managers of licensed hotels and tourist homes are exempt from long-term property-manager licensing (SB442), 50-0. - A warrant-procedure clarification requiring known lawful occupants to be shown a search warrant (SB444), 46-4. - A prior-authorization reform for continuity of care and electronic submissions (SB449), 50-0. - A prohibition on soliciting roadside towing/services at accident scenes and a requirement that tow operators carry written proof of requests (SB455), 48-2. - A measure inserting a ‘best-interests’ standard into child-protective-services law (SB466), 50-0. - A pedestrian-crossing statute clarifying when drivers must yield at pedestrian-activated devices (SB471), 34-14. - Multiple bills on student-athlete name/image/likeness contracts (SB482), special-needs ESA remittance timing (SB486), the…