After back-to-back days of marathon committee hearings and floor sessions, the Montana Legislature on March 3 reached the transmittal deadline for general bills — the date by which all bills that do not appropriate money or state revenue must pass through at least one chamber of the legislature in order to stay alive — sending 802 bills through to the second half of the legislative session.
As lawmakers debated which bills would continue towards the Governor’s desk, the successful transmittal of a number of high-profile conservative bills reflected the power of the state’s first Republican supermajority in five decades. With eight weeks of the session remaining, lawmakers are tasked with navigating a host of contentious social issues, as well as continuing battles over how to spend the state’s budget surplus.
For Speaker of the House Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, the stronghold of Republican legislators in Helena indicates that “voters really sent a mandate with the supermajority,” electing 68 members of the G.O.P. in the House and 34 in the Senate.
Regier praised efforts in the legislature to reduce income tax rates, pay off debt and cut bureaucratic “red tape,” priorities that have stood out for a legislative body charged with doling out a historic $2.5 billion budget surplus.
“We want more efficient government,” Regier said, emphasizing tax relief and debt reduction as a “highlight” of the session so far.
In addition to tax and spending reduction, Republicans in the House and Senate have overseen the progression of a number of conservative bills concerning abortion, LGBTQ rights and healthcare, many of which drew large crowds and hours of in-person and virtual testimony during committee hearings. Bills that will continue to move through the legislature include efforts to ban children from attending drag shows, prohibit gender-affirming care for transgender minors, permit medical providers to deny services based on ethical or religious beliefs, and allow students to misgender or deadname classmates.
There are currently multiple bills that have passed through at least one chamber that attempt to restrict or ban abortion, including a measure by Regier that would severely limit surgical abortion procedures.
“There are a few pro-life bills that are working their way through,” Regier said. “There’s a healthy position amongst the whole caucus to protect life.”
Regier said that the 1999 Montana Supreme Court ruling Armstrong v. State, which extended Montanans’ constitutional right to privacy to include abortion, would likely “go before the voters” in the near future, a move that would mark a major success for the party, which seeks to completely ban elective abortions in Montana.
Efforts to fund infrastructure and ameliorate the state’s housing crisis have seen greater bipartisan support, including bills that would allow for duplex, triplex and fourplex housing in city zoning, increase state funding to public libraries and permit zoning for “tiny dwelling units” to increase housing supply.
Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell, who brought the legislation that would increase library funding, told the Beacon that 82 communities across Montana would benefit from the allocations in the bill.
“That extra percentage can help them do things that are really tailored to the community’s needs,” Sprunger said. “Its a really good use of our dime as we think about investing in the future.”
The session will resume in Helena on March 9. More information can be found at leg.mt.gov.