In the midst of a political battle at the start of the 2025 Montana Legislature, Sen. Mike Cuffe said Wednesday he wanted to present a bill to honor a fallen Vietnam war soldier from Libby.

Cuffe, R-Eureka, said it’s his eighth and last session, and he wanted to offer a bill to pay tribute to the late Staff Sgt. Arthur J. Rambo, who, he said, was nothing like the aggressive movie character.

“Rambo’s personality was 100% the opposite of the man in the movie,” Cuffe said. “There’s a very caring, giving man.”

The bill describes Rambo as a family man who was active in his community, in baseball and talent shows, and in college, sang in the Carroll College Carrolleers, where he met his wife, Helen Ryan.

After he started working with the family, Cuffe mulled the “wrangling,” “elbowing,” and “negotiating about one thing or another” that might be needed to get the bill passed.

But the political dispute in the Senate, over the makeup of committees, slowed its work, and it opened a window for the bill, one Cuffe believes has become even more necessary.

“This is a feel-good kind of a bill,” he said. “This is a very honorable kind of a bill. This is a bill, I believe, that is urgently needed.”

Rambo was drafted into service and didn’t seek an exemption for which he was eligible, the bill said, and Cuffe said some lawmakers were part of the draft too. In 1969, Rambo arrived in Vietnam, and a few months later, his unit came under attack.

“Staff Sgt. Arthur J. Rambo worked heroically under fire to save his crew members and their military assets,” said the bill. “He sustained fatal injuries and was awarded the Silver Star.

“ … He was survived by his wife, Helen, his daughter, Kerry Lynn, his newborn daughter, Amy Denise, and his extended family.”

Wednesday, after senators in a committee took another split vote related to how they would manage committees, they approved the measure to create a memorial bridge in Libby for Rambo on a 50-to-0 vote.

Cuffe said it would name the Highway 37 bridge that enters Libby from the north, and the sign would have language that honored Rambo along with other fallen veterans.

“In spite of all of our differences, our factions, our personalities,” Cuffe said, the bill “would help unite us, help us all feel human compassion.”

He also said he believes Rambo would appreciate it.

On the first day of the session, Monday, the Senate took a vote that upset a plan Republican leadership had planned for how committees would work, and some senators have canceled committee meetings or are holding “organizational” and “educational” meetings instead.

In its rules committee Wednesday, senators took another vote, this one to upend Monday’s proposal. Thursday, the full Senate will take up the matter, which affects the way minority Democrats are distributed among committees.

The Senate is currently under temporary rules, which distribute Democrats in a way the minority party wants, and with support, at least for the time being, from a small group of Republicans.

The Senate could make a change Thursday by adopting permanent rules, supported by Republican leadership, or it could operate under its temporary rules for the session, as it has in the past.

The Montana Legislature used to have the best legislative website in the country for tracking bills — that’s what Sen. Andrea Olsen was told roughly eight years ago.

This year, a new system launched, complete with new bugs.

The chief information officer for the Legislative Services Division said Wednesday a technology team is delivering code on a daily basis to fix the problems, and the goal is to have a top-notch system once again.

In the meantime, however, legislators, lobbyists and members of the public are running into roadblocks in trying to follow the work of the 69th Montana Legislature.

“Unfortunately, it truly is a disaster to start the session without efficient capacity to track bills,” Olsen said. “This is for us as legislators, but particularly for the public.”

Olsen, a lawyer, said the lack of transparency also runs contrary to protections in the Montana Constitution.

“We have a constitutional right to know, and a constitutional right to participate, and those two things are infringed when we have a system that is so difficult, and when there’s so many bugs to still work out,” Olsen said.

Jerry Howe, executive director of Legislative Services Division, and Dale Gow, chief information officer, said Wednesday the old system was a workhorse, but nonetheless, on its last legs.

Howe said he feared it wouldn’t make it through 2025, and the Legislative Services Division decided to create a new one in house. He said the goal is to have a website that works better than the old one, and the team is making progress.

“We understand that there is some frustration,” Howe said. “Be patient with us as we build this system from scratch. We think that people will be pleased with it as it unfolds and as it reaches its maturity.”

Problems, some solutions

Charles Denowh, with the Montana Group, has worked legislative sessions since 2003, and he said the old system was “very functional.” However, he said it was also dated, and the user interface was rudimentary.

“I understand why they decided it was time for an upgrade,” Denowh said.

He said Legislative Services couldn’t fully test the new system until the session started, and launching now means having to “fix it on the fly.”

“I feel bad for those guys,” Denowh said of the workers. “I know a lot of people are pretty angry at them. They’re fixing it as fast as they can, and I’ve been pretty impressed at how dedicated they’ve been to getting things right.”

He said he’s figured out some workarounds, but some features are still missing.

At least midday Wednesday, the third day of the session, he still hadn’t seen committee assignments listed on legislator pages. He’d also seen cancelled hearings still show up as taking place in a data export feature.

“That’s probably been the biggest difficulty I’ve seen is getting an accurate committee hearing schedule,” said Denowh, a lobbyist.

In the Senate, a political power struggle is taking place, and committee meetings have stalled. The stalling ended up demonstrating new shortfalls in the system too, Howe said.

“When they cancelled hearings in bulk, it created issues we had not foreseen or contemplated in the past,” Howe said.

On the other hand, he said it means developers can address it and create a more robust site.

“I’m not sure the old system would have accommodated the cancellations,” Howe said.

Howe said the redo didn’t come out of some desire to improve the system, it came out of necessity.

“We got through last session, but it took a lot of effort and work to hold that thing together,” he said.

A major upgrade was needed, and Gow said they decided to bring the project in house with a new suite of applications and the goal of “all the functionality that everybody has been using the past 30 years.”

They couldn’t dig into it right after the 2023 session because staff still have work to do afterwards, he said. They get funding to start their projects in July, but he said money wasn’t the issue, and time was.

“This was replacing 30-year-old technology within 10 months to get to baseline for the session,” Gow said.

A security application that was part of the project had some issues too, and that took nearly two months to sort out, Gow said. But he said the new applications are more secure.

“They used to be wide open,” he said.

In the past, he said, they relied on someone in Ireland to help fix system problems, and they decided to do the baseline work in their own shop in order to support the system themselves.

“Now we’re able to do all of these enhancements and bug fixes in house, and we’re able to turn those around very quickly,” Gow said.

People are calling to report problems, and since Monday, the number of tickets related to the new website was 51 as of Wednesday, Howe said. That’s out of 202 total tickets for all tech issues, such as a legislator needing help with a printer.

Gow said eight developers and six analysts are working to address problems, in addition to their other duties.

A timeline for when the new system could be considered largely complete wasn’t set.

“It does take time to develop software in that way, and we’re confident that in time, this new system will be able to accomplish all the needs the public has with respect to bill status and transparency of the legislative process,” Howe said.

Matt Leow, with Tenacious Campaigns, said the old system was not just functional, it was familiar. The lobbyist said the new system is making Capitol veterans like him, around for 20 years, feeling like it’s the first day of school.

“What people are doing to try to address the problem is they’re buying the subscription services, which is great if you’re a well-paid lobbyist, not so great if you’re a member of the public who wants to stay informed and get involved in the process,” Leow said.

Years ago, Olsen said she attended the National Conference of State Legislators, and software sales people trying to sell bill tracking programs wouldn’t try to sell to her when they learned she was from Montana.

“They looked at me and said, ‘Oh, well you already have the best system in the country,’” Olsen said.

So she said she appreciates the goal with the new system is to emulate the old one, although the clock is ticking with the lack of transparency.

“It’s a disaster for public notice purposes,” Olsen said.

Sen. John Fuller, a Kalispell Republican, said he hasn’t heard complaints from constituents, but the slowdown in the Senate is part of the bigger picture too.

“Of course, part of the problem is we haven’t done anything yet,” Fuller said. “When we start cranking stuff out, if it’s not fixed by then — I think it will be — but if we start cranking stuff out, then people have the right to get upset.”

He said no one is to blame because the project involves a lot of changes, and he knows staff are working hard on the “hiccups.”

“We’re trying to increase accessibility while maintaining cybersecurity. Duh. Those are opposing ends,” Fuller said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the number of tickets logged for problems with the website, which was unavailable at press time.

Jewish-American dancer, singer, and activist Montana Tucker shared a video on Wednesday wherein she, and members of the Shiraz Dance Ensemble, dance in honor of the Iranian women who have stood against the Islamic regime in Tehran.

Tucker shared the video, which was initiated and produced by Combat Antisemitism Movement, on Instagram to her 3.2 million followers. She posted it along with Noor Pahlavi, the eldest child of former Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi.

“This is dedicated to the women of Iran who stood fearlessly in the face of fanaticism and brutality to fight for their basic human rights,” Tucker wrote on Instagram. “For 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, beaten to death for showing her hair. For Nika Shakarami, 16, whose body was stolen by the regime after her murder. For Sarina Esmailzadeh, 16, beaten to death by security forces for protesting. For Hadis Najafi, 22, who danced for freedom.”

The dance, choreographed by Iris Delshad Maymon, was filmed in Jaffa, Israel, CAM noted.

“For the thousands of school girls and women who dared to burn their hijabs, cut their hair, and march in defiance of the Islamic Republic, knowing it could and had cost countless their lives. For the Iranians who want to reclaim and rebuild their country.”

Iranian women who opposed the Iranian regime

The video features images and short descriptions of Mahsa Amini, Nika Shakarami, Yahoo Daryaei, and Paraastoo Ahmadi, Iranian women who opposed the Iranian regime. Amini and Shakarami were killed by the Islamic Republic

“Iranian women must be supported in this fight. Israeli women, too, know the brutal impact of this regime and its proxies,” Tucker continued. “We stand TOGETHER, bound by the cries of ‘Women, Life, Freedom,’ against a regime that denies ALL of us dignity, safety, and choice.”

Within hours of being published on Instagram, the video amassed over 10,000 likes.

“This dance is our REBELLION. It’s a tribute to the fallen, a symbol of UNITY, and a call to action,” Tucker added. “To every woman fighting for her voice to be heard: we SEE you, we STAND with you, and we WILL NOT be SILENT.”

CAM Public Affairs Officer Natalie Sanandaji, a Persian-American Jewish woman, coordinated the dance project, CAM stated. Sanandaji is a survivor the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks, when terrorists killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 others in southern Israel. Sanandaji was at the Nova Music Festival in Re’im.

“Under the shadow of the Islamic regime, the women of Iran are not just battling for their rights — they are fighting for their lives,” Sanandaji said. “For too long, their voices have been silenced, and their basic liberties denied. Yet, despite the brutality they endure, they continue to resist with inspirational strength.”

“The unity between Iranian and Israeli women is a testament to the power of human solidarity,” she added. “By standing together, they show that freedom is a universal desire transcending traditional religious, cultural, and political divides.”