Montana 2023 Legislative Session Preview

I want to start by saying thank you to our advocates and volunteers for the support you give us as we work to create a healthier Montana. We are so grateful to all of you.

With the holidays quickly approaching that also means that the 68^th Montana Legislative Session will be here before we know it. Session begins Monday, January 2^nd and we anticipate that we will have a very busy session, both trying to pass good legislation to help improve health in Montana but also fighting back against bad legislation that is aimed at undoing some of our hard won victories from the past, especially concerning tobacco and nicotine products.

We will be watching carefully a few bill drafts that we expect to be attacks on Montana’s Clean Indoor Air Act. While bill language is not yet available, we anticipate LC 1476 and LC 1075 from Rep. Ron Marshall to be copies of the bills he brought last session that sought to undo Montana’s Clean Indoor Air Act and communities’ abilities to regulate e-cigarette use under it. Overall, there are 17 tobacco related bills, many of which we believe will go after Montana’s Master Tobacco Settlement Fund that support cessation and prevention efforts across the state and the protections the Clean Indoor Air Act affords Montanans.

With the unfortunate increase in the number of young people using and becoming addicted to nicotine products and a recent news story about the rate of lung cancer in Montana being one of the highest in the nation we know the work to protect the Tobacco Master Settlement Fund and the Clean Indoor Air Act is crucial.

We will be in touch in the upcoming months with different opportunities for you to help during the legislative session and protect Montana from bad tobacco legislation! If you have any questions or would like to talk more about our plans and how you can help please reach out to Grace Henscheid.