17 April 2013

Meet the Montana Senate’s dozen anti-science Democrats

Update, 1637 MDT. I've just received word that HB-574 failed to receive a two-thirds vote on the third reading in the Senate. Table 2 (new) presents the eight Democrats who persisted in voting Aye (against science) on the third reading.

Twelve Democrats who should know better voted for the latest version of HB-574, Missoula Republican Champ Edmunds’ raw milk legalization bill, which was approved 39-10 yesterday on its second reading in the State Senate. The third reading is today.

HB-574 now sets up a system of herd shares, mandates that those purchasing raw milk assume all of the risk (sellers are held harmless), sets up a cigarette style labeling system, and invokes sovereign immunity so that the State of Montana cannot be sued for not protecting people who are harmed by drinking raw milk. As per Montana’s constitution, the sovereign immunity provision means the bill must be approved by a two-thirds majority in both houses of the legislature.

The Senate version of HB-574 was approved 9-2 by the Senate’s agriculture committee, on 12 April, with Mary Caferro (D-Helena) and Scott Sales (R-Bozeman) voting against it. But both voted for the bill on the second reading. Go figure.

My sources report that the agriculture committee’s members treated this as a food freedom instead of a public health issue. They simply ignored the science supporting the current ban on selling raw milk.

Under the manure wagon

The willingness of Democrats to throw public health considerations under the manure wagon is especially disheartening. Why do the same legislators who are working their tails off to expand Medicaid in Montana refuse to kill legislation that legalizes the sale of raw milk, a product long proved to be dangerous, especially to children?

If you’d like to ask them why, or try to set them straight, here are their names and links to their webpages at the legislature:

Table 1: The dozen dirty Democrats

	Legislator	District	City
	Augare, Shannon	8	Browning
	Caferro, Mary	40	Helena
	Driscoll, Robyn	26	Billings
	Facey, Tom	48	Missoula
	Keane, Jim	38	Butte
	Larsen, Cliff	50	Missoula
	Malek, Sue	46	Missoula
	Phillips, Mike	33	Bozeman
	Sesso, Jon	37	Butte
	Stewart-Peregoy, Sharon	21	Crow Agency
	Vuckovich, Gene	43	Anaconda
	Windy Boy, Jonathan	16	Box Elder