The Session is back for the 69th Montana Legislature. This week, we preview lawmakers work that starts January 6. Reporters talk about new party leaders, legislative rules, and how the governor wants to spend public money.

The 2025 Montana Legislature elected by voters in November will meet in January to consider new laws and develop a two-year state budget. Already, it’s clear what some of the key issues of the session will be — among them housing affordability, tax policy, education funding and the potential renewal of Montana’s expanded Medicaid health coverage program. The Session podcast team took some time at the inaugural Montana Free Press Fest, held in Missoula Sept. 6-8, to sit down and discuss what we can see about next year’s legislative session from here in front of a live audience.

There are only a few days left in the 2023 legislative session. The recent decision to ban Missoula Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr from the House floor derailed legislative business. Host Mara Silvers and reporters Shaylee Ragar, Eric Dietrich and Amanda Eggert discuss what to expect in the final days of the session and the last minute deals on the budget and housing policy.

Join us for a live recording of The Session May 10 at 7 p.m. as we discuss the major developments from the 2023 session and what lies ahead for the laws created in the statehouse these last few months.

Save your virtual seat here and submit your questions about the 68th legislative session using this survey link.

As the 2023 legislative session sprints to the finish line, tensions are running high over bills targeting transgender Montanans and environmental regulation. Host Corin Cates-Carney and reporters Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Ellis Juhlin, and Mara Silvers discuss what to expect in the final days of the legislature as lawmakers scramble to reach sine die.

Host Nadya Faulx and reporters Shaylee Ragar, Eric Dietrich, and Alex Sakariassen discuss lawmakers finding agreement to advance housing zoning policy, the unclear future on housing subsidies, dueling visions of what school choice policy should look like in Montana and legislative staff working thousands of hours of overtime to keep up with all the bills.

Last week was another major deadline for lawmakers to pass bills out of one house and send them to the other. We saw hundreds of bills move through both chambers, and saw a push from lawmakers to introduce new legislation in time to meet that deadline, including some that opponents say would have a "chilling" effect on legal challenges to state decisions, and one that would create a jungle primary in Montana -- but for only one race.

As we enter the home stretch of the 2023 legislative session, Republican lawmakers have proposed a slew of constitutional amendments ahead of a looming deadline. At the same time, lawmakers are debating measures to address the affordable housing crisis in the state and proposing rules about what local governments should and shouldn't be able to do about climate change.

Montana Public Radio's Corin Cates-Carney talks about all these measures and more with Montana Free Press's Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Eric Dietrich, and Amanda Eggert, and Yellowstone Public Radio's Kayla Desroches.

A 14 billion dollar budget passed out of the Montana House with support from the Republican supermajority. Democrats don’t have the power to change it, but they still tried.

Host Nadya Faulx and reporters Eric Dietrich, Ellis Juhlin, and Arren Kimbel-Sannit discuss the debate over how the state should spend tax dollars.

The spending plan calls for a deal to send state inmates to an out-of-state private prison.

And a package of legislation could change how and where people can hunt elk.

More legislative coverage:

Budget bill clears House debate with GOP support, Democratic critique

What to know about the budget bill moving through the Legislature