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House adds broadband and wireless communications to critical infrastructure protections
Summary
House Bill 257 passed second reading to expand Montana’s critical-infrastructure vandalism protections to include broadband and wireless communications infrastructure and to close a loophole affecting linear facilities such as transmission lines and railways.
House Bill 257, which expands Montana’s critical infrastructure protections to include broadband and wireless communications and closes a statutory loophole affecting linear facilities, passed second reading with a recorded vote of 89-11.
Representative Kametz, the bill sponsor, described the measure as a modernization of laws enacted in 2021 (House Bill 481) to deter willful damage to critical infrastructure. Kametz said the bill adds broadband and wireless communications infrastructure to the list of protected facilities and removes language that had left many large, linear facilities — such as transmission lines and railways — vulnerable because they could not be fully enclosed or marked.
The sponsor stressed the bill does not change "call before you dig" requirements or criminalize accidental strikes to facilities by landowners, contractors or farmers. "What this bill does not do... it does not talk about 8 1 1 or call before you dig," Kametz said, noting the measure targets wilful damage.
Kametz cited a November 2024 report, noting an estimate of 44 daily instances nationwide of wilful damage and destruction to communications and related critical infrastructure; the bill would align Montana’s statute with similar protections enacted in other states.
The House recorded a 89-11 vote to pass the bill on second reading. The bill directs criminal penalties and protections already framed by the 2021 law to explicitly cover broadband and wired communications as critical infrastructure.
