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Legislature

For Montana Legislature, the Biennial Work Begins

The Legislature began its 68th session with partisan speechifying and a minor rules fight

By Arren Kimbel-Sannit, Montana Free Press

The 68th Montana Legislature has convened, its first day marking a relative calm before what could be a watershed session steered by the first Republican bicameral supermajority since the state adopted its current Constitution in 1972. 

Lawmakers with first-day-of-school jitters in both the House of Representatives and Senate began their days shortly after noon, taking their oaths of office as friends, family, supporters, a smattering of lobbyists and others looked on from the chamber galleries. The spirit, at least at first, was congenial, as returning legislators shook hands as old friends regardless of party. As newly elected Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Bozeman, noted Monday, it all gets harder from here.

“We’re about to begin on a great adventure for the next four months,” Flowers told fellow Democrats in a Monday press conference. “I invite you all to look around for a second, look at your neighbors and realize this is as healthy and happy as you’ll be for the next four months. It’s all downhill from here.” 

In the House, legislators selected an unopposed Rep. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, as Speaker, avoiding intra-party conflict and affirming decisions the caucus made in pre-session meetings late last year. The same was true in the Senate, where lawmakers confirmed Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, as president. 

In speeches to the chambers, Republican leadership previewed policy ambitions and trumpeted their newly attained supermajorities. Collectively, the party holds 102 seats across the House and Senate. 

“We must remain steadfast in working together to achieve the conservative mandate that our voters and Montanans sent us here to accomplish,” House Majority Leader Sue Vinton, R-Billings, told other Republicans. 

Vinton noted several GOP legislative priorities, including using the state’s $1 billion-plus budget surplus to issue tax rebates, increasing parents’ involvement in their children’s education and “demanding that all three branches of government adhere to the same rules of transparency of transparency and ethics” — the latter an apparent reference to the ongoing conflict between Republican legislators and the state judiciary. 

In an agenda-framing speech of his own, Republican Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, of Great Falls, said he regards addressing inflation, housing and cost-of-living issues as a priority for this year’s Legislature. He also touted what he called the success of Republicans’ 2021 agenda, which cut taxes and curtailed COVID-19 pandemic-era public health regulations. Fitzpatrick said the expanded majority won by Republicans in last fall’s election gives that agenda the electorate’s stamp of approval.

“Montanans made it clear that they like our conservative leadership and they want us to continue to lead the state in the positive direction that we did last session,” Fitzpatrick said.

This story originally appeared in the Montana Free Press, which can be found online at montanafreepress.org.