State budget cuts mean the Office of the State Public Defender is freezing salaries and reducing pay to contractors. Testifying before the state Legislature’s Law and Justice Interim Committee Tuesday, Harry Freeborn, the head of the Montana public defender's office says the budget that lawmakers and the governor gave him is smaller than in previous years.

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging a Montana state law that limits who can perform abortions. The lawsuit filed in state court Tuesday says current law violates patients’ equal protection rights to choose an abortion health care provider. Montana law allows only physicians and physicians assistants to perform abortions.

The Director of Montana’s Department of Corrections had few details on last week’s firing of the warden at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge when state lawmakers asked him about it Monday.

For more than half a decade, the Lake County Conservation District has been working on a proposal to transfer management of 60,000 acres from the Flathead National Forest to the state for the next 100 years.

Montana is appealing FEMA’s denial of the state's request for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration following last year’s historic fire season. In late December, the federal government denied Governor Bullock’s initial request for help in covering some of the $44 million in firefighting costs billed to the state at the end of last summer summer when Montana’s own fire fund was almost drained.

Tribes in northwest Montana have pledged to uphold the Paris Climate Agreement, despite President Donald Trump backing out last year. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes signed onto the We Are Still In campaign last week.

A bill that would protect 79,000 acres of wilderness in the Blackfoot and Clearwater watersheds has been scheduled for a Senate committee hearing in two weeks.

Montana’s health department is now sharing with prosecutors results of drug toxicology tests conducted on children suspected to have been exposed to drugs. The Department previously didn’t comply with this state law because they said doing so would jeopardize federal funding . Health Department Director Sheila Hogan gave regional Child and Family Services supervisors Tuesday the go-ahead to share those toxicology reports with county attorneys.

Montana’s Democratic Senator Jon Tester is part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers trying to strike a new deal with the White House on border security. Tester this week met with the Secretary of Homeland Security and a bipartisan group of lawmakers. He’s hoping to help push a border security plan through Congress as part of a long-term budget agreement.

Congress has approved an agreement to reopen the federal government after a three-day shutdown. The deal is now on its way to President Trump’s desk for his signature.