‘Doomsday bill’: Coming to #MTLEG near you?

Every legislative session Montana lawmakers regularly talk about how  ‘North Dakota is doing this’ and ‘We need to be more like Wyoming that…” It seems there’s always a certain level of envy with our neighbors to the east, south and west.

Also each session we tend to see a raft of similarly constructed controversial anti-federal government bills pop up in states throughout our region. Bills to nullify federal laws, empower sheriffs as the supreme law enforcement officials in the land and bills requiring states to do business in gold are just a few that come to mind. Many of these bills seem to be predicated upon the notion that the federal government is an enemy of the states and/or is doomed to collapse in the foreseeable future.

So when I saw this interesting story about a Wyoming lawmaker’s attempt to pass a “doomsday bill” in that state’s legislature, I couldn’t help but wonder if we’ll be seeing a similar bill introduced in the 2013 Montana Legislature:

Fearing an economic and political collapse nationwide, Wyoming lawmakers are moving ahead with legislation to deal with a doomsday scenario -- complete with plans to create a state currency.

“Things happen quickly sometimes — look at Libya, look at Egypt, look at those situations,” the bill’s GOP sponsor State Rep. David Miller told the Star-Tribune in Casper. “We wouldn’t have time to meet as a Legislature or even in special session to do anything to respond.”

According to the Star-Tribune, House Bill 85 would create a state-run “government continuity task force,” to prepare Wyoming for potential disruptions in food and energy to a complete breakdown of the federal government.

Miller is also asking for the task force to look into creating its own state currency in the event the dollar loses value entirely.

 According to the Star-Tribune, the Wyoming House narrowly defeated the bill today by a 30-27 margin.