Toplines for this issue: Already, an attack on trans rights, plus the Senate debate and rules fight.
Welcome to What the Helena, Forward Montana’s newsletter where we will cover the 69th Legislative Session. It’s the first week of the session and the unexpected (but also not unexpected) is happening.
Legislators were barely sworn in on January 6th before the drama began. With over 4200 bill draft requests making their way through legislative services, it seems we are in for another rollercoaster. Grab yourself a drink and snack, and let’s get into the policies and tea from the first week. 🍵
To hear more about our team’s takeaways from this first week (or if you prefer to listen to your news), be sure to check out the What the Helena Podcast!
🏛️ At the Capitol and Virtual Gatherings
There will be a lot of opportunities to join us at the Capitol or in community to talk about the 69th legislative session. The first couple of opportunities to engage are right around the corner!
- Wednesday, January 15th at 12pm, join Montanans from across the state at Capitol Flag Plaza (in front of the Capitol building) for the Montana Medicaid Rally. RSVP here!
- Thursday, January 16th at 12pm, join us at a virtual action to Call Your Lawmaker. This youth-led event will provide you with the tools and practice on how to contact your legislator – in particular, to invite them to the Climate Advocacy Day, happening on Friday, January 24th, in the Capitol Rotunda. RSVP here for the virtual call. More info here about the Climate Advocacy Day.
Republicans Need a Priority Check
With questions around healthcare, housing, and climate action, we would think that legislators would prioritize discussions and policies to address these issues. Instead, by the second day of session, conservatives decided to fast-track their attacks on trans people.
Background: The full legislature meets every 2 years to pass policy and the state budget. But, did you know that legislators continue to meet between each legislative session in a series of meetings referred to as interim legislative committees. While interim committees do not pass policy, they can work together to draft policy to introduce at the next legislative session.
During the first few weeks of session, we’d expect to see the slew of bills drafted during the interim committees making their way to their first hearings. After all, legislators have spent months on these bills. Instead, House Republicans set a Friday hearing for an entirely new bill to discuss where trans people get to use the bathroom in public spaces.
House Bill 121, sponsored by Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, poses as a bill aiming to protect the privacy of (cis)women, but it is a thinly veiled attempt to prevent individuals from using the bathrooms, changing rooms, or private facilities that align with their gender. This bathroom ban is particularly egregious because it would allow anyone to sue public schools, private businesses, and even domestic violence shelters if they believe they’ve encountered someone who is in the “wrong” bathroom.
The person suing could force a business, school, or shelter to change their restroom access, as well as demand money for any damages caused to their person as a result of the incident. The real impact of this bill isn’t public safety, but significant loss of funds to universities, public schools, shelters, and businesses who will have to navigate a civil suit based on what one person thinks of the appearance of another.
As Representative Bedey noted in December during a pre-session bathroom debate, HB 121 and similar bills are a distraction from the real issues facing Montanans. We urge that like in December, common sense prevails.
For now, we continue to ponder why legislators are so obsessed with having a say in where trans people get to use the bathroom. It’s creepy. 😖
A Senate in Disarray
Having rules and committee assignment debates is not the normal agenda for the first week of session, as rules are usually settled during pre-session discussions. Yet before the ink had dried on each senator’s oath of office, order on the Senate floor dissolved after Minority Leader Pat Flowers motioned to undo a recent rules decision that formed a new standing committee.
The motion passed with the full support from Senate Democrats plus nine Senate Republicans. This means that committee assignments for all regularly scheduled (standing) Senate committees could now possibly change – drastically changing the landscape of what types of bills can (or cannot) make it out of committee.
In response, Senate Republican leadership – Senate President Matt Regier plus Senate committee chairs suspended all business as usual for the whole week. Want more info on the motion and impact? Peep our villain section. 👇
The result: The senate had ZERO bill hearings this week, after initially having a full week of work scheduled. Where this will all land is yet to be determined. Between the conflict within the Republican party and the Senate now a week behind in work, tensions are high in the building as lawmakers try to get things moving again.
Incoming Attacks on the Judiciary 👩⚖️
Before the senate stalled, there were a slew of bills scheduled that seek to undermine our state’s fair and impartial judiciary, particularly aimed at the Montana Supreme Court.
This is in response to MT SCOTUS persistent reminders this past year to the legislature that they cannot pass unconstitutional policy. Conservatives have declared war on the separation of powers and the court’s authority. We expect to know more next week on when these bills will be scheduled. Keep an eye out for calls to action regarding judicial attacks.
What We Are Watching 👀
🏡 House Bill 21 would establish a Montana Workforce Housing Tax Credit. As most of us are all painfully aware, there is a housing shortage across all our communities. The state’s population continues to grow and lawmakers need to find solutions now to figure out how to support our communities instead of allowing inaction to create further harm to our quality of life and economy.
HB 21 would provide access to additional funding sources, which are badly needed to fund new affordable housing options for working Montanans. The bill had its first hearing in the House Tax Committee on Friday, January 10th – and received overwhelming bipartisan advocate support. We’ll keep you posted on the committee’s decision.
Hero of the Week- Rep. Mary Caferro (D) Helena
We are excited to announce our first hero of the 69th Legislative Session: Representative Mary Caferro. On the 4th day of session, Rep. Caferro stood up for Montanans on the House floor by declaring that our taxpayer dollars should not be used to defend the state in lawsuits regarding their bad behavior.
#DYK: For the last few decades, the public has had access to the behind-the-scenes documents and correspondence that go into a bill draft process. This compilation of information collected by the Legislative Services Division is referred to as the junque files. These files allowed advocates, journalists, lobbyists, and anyone else in the public to see what resources and relationships legislators were using to influence their bill drafts.
Fast forward to this past year, when a ruling by Lewis and Clark District Court Judge Christopher Abbott left us with the unanswered question: are junque files ‘privileged’ information, or subject to the public right to know?
As a result, the Legislative Services Division closed off access to these files, citing this court decision. Resulting in a major loss to transparency in our legislative processes.
Back to this week: In the House floor debate of House Bill 1, the bill that funds the salaries of legislators and staff for the 69th legislative session, Rep. Caferro brought an amendment to remove a section of funding intended to pay for the state’s defense in a lawsuit that seeks to keep this information from the public.
Rep. Caferro declared that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay to lose their right to know. And we couldn’t agree more.
Villain of the Week- Sen. Matt Regier (R) Kalispell
While we all expect our schedules during session to include last minute changes and quick turnarounds, we are appalled by the behavior of one senator this week that kept the entire chamber in uncertainty and wasted tax-payer dollars by freezing committee agendas. For that reason our first villain of the week is Senate President Matt Regier.
As we shared earlier in this newsletter, the Senate was at a standstill after a surprise motion on the floor to change the designation of a new committee from standing to on-call.
Background: In the fall after the election, the newly elected legislators convene in Helena to begin preparations for session. One of the most important preparations is the establishment of the rules that will govern the legislative processes. This past fall, conservative leadership adopted rules that created a new committee: Executive Review.
The reason? Many conservative Republicans believe that the Governor is not aligned with their conservative principles. This committee was a strategy to keep the Executive branch in check by sending bills requested by the Governor and his agencies to be heard in this Executive Review committee.
When the committee was redesignated to be an on-call committee, Senate President Regier used his position in leadership to cancel all hearings until the decision could be reversed. As of Friday, the 9 senators who voted for this change are holding firm in their decision.
The result: a colossal waste of time and money for everyone expecting the Senate to begin their important work this week. Including the House chamber, which continued to hear bills and schedule hearings. Although the Senate is now a week behind, Regier has conceded that it is time to accept his chamber’s decision and let the Senate get to work.
What a way for this legislative session to start 🎢