Thus far over 4,440 bill titles have been submitted to the Legislature Services Division, as of Jan. 23. More than half of those titles will never result in a bill being introduced. They are referred to as “placeholders,” a title available to be turned into a bill to address some issue, if necessary. During the past five legislative sessions, an average of 1,339 bills have been introduced.
Notwithstanding the large number of bill titles and bills likely to be introduced, there is only one bill that really needs to pass, House Bill 2, the state budget. Enacting the state budget is the most important function the Legislature undertakes — it keeps state government operating.
Montana has two committees that hear appropriation measures, the Appropriation Committee in the House and the Finance and Claims Committee in the Senate.
In the larger states an appropriation bill is first heard and enacted in the House and then goes through the process a second time in the Senate. In Montana, the procedure is different. The members of the Senate join the Representatives from the House on one of five subcommittees and they jointly hear the budget bill together. Members of both bodies get the opportunity to delve into the state agency budgets in detail and question the witnesses representing the agencies. The five budget subcommittees and the agencies they evaluate are listed below:
• Subcommittee A: General Government: Departments of Administration, Revenue,
• Commerce, Military Affairs, Labor and Industry, Governor’s Office, State Auditor.
• Subcommittee B: Human Services: Department of Public Health and Human Services.
• Subcommittee C: Natural Resources and Transportation: Departments of Natural Resources, Transportation, Environmental Quality, Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Livestock and Agriculture.
• Subcommittee D: Judicial Branch, Law Enforcement and Justice: Departments of Justice, Corrections, Public Service Regulation and Judicial System.
• Subcommittee F: Education: University System, Office of Public Instruction, Historical
• Society, Arts Council, State Library and Board of Public Education.
The Subcommittees review HB2 as submitted by the Governor’s Office. Each subcommittee has the latitude to amend the portions of the bill they study and forward these recommendations to the full Appropriations Committee where the proposed amendments can be accepted, rejected, or modified. When passed out of the full committee, the bill goes to the floor of the House for debate. Any member can submit amendments to the bill at that point. Once all of the amendments have been acted upon, the body votes to pass or kill the bill. In 44 years of working with the Legislature, the bill has never been killed but it has been delayed such that a Special Session was necessary to complete the budget.
When passed, the budget moves to the Senate Finance and Claims Committee which holds another hearing with all of its members. Again, the Finance and Claims Committee can amend the bill as can individual Senators when the bill arrives on the Senate floor.
By the time the budget passes the Senate, the bill will be different from that enacted by the House. When the bill returns to the House, the sponsor can recommend that the House accept the Senate changes or encourage the House to reject the Senate’s changes.
If the changes are rejected, the budget bill goes to a conference committee made up of six members, three from each body to see if it can work out the differences. If this occurs, the conference committee will recommend passage by both chambers, an action which is almost always accepted. Once that occurs, the bill is transmitted to the governor for his signature.
However, if the Conference Committee fails to reach agreement on the content of the budget bill, the committee is dissolved and another is appointed in its place. This process will be repeated until an agreement is hammered out. Typically, three to five conference committees are needed to reach agreement on the budget bill.
This week three of my bills were heard in committee including HB 11, a bill that provides grants to local governments to repair water and wastewater systems and bridges; HB 8, which provides loans to regional water systems and irrigation districts; and HB 6, which funds grants for water and wastewater systems and irrigation districts.
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