Montana House rules debate showcases Republican fissures
Rep. Jerry Schillinger said conservative Republicans should hold onto all the power voters gave them — not fritter it away by making it easier for moderate bills to be heard.
“These motions are nothing but an attempt to neuter the voices of the people of Montana that have sent the conservative candidates to serve in the legislature,” said Schillinger, R-Circle.
Monday in committee, however, legislators approved an amendment 12-10 to their House rules that the sponsor and other lawmakers in support argued would allow more voices of Montanans to be heard even with the Republican supermajority.
Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, proposed the change as lawmakers finalized their rules at the start of the 68th Montana Legislature. During the session, he said many bills are tabled in committee, but his amendment said with 55 votes from representatives, lawmakers could “blast” a tabled bill onto the floor for debate.
A couple of more conservative lawmakers said that number should be 60 instead, and Republicans shouldn’t be diluting their power.
But Buttrey said some committees are small, and it’s only fair that roughly one third of the party in power should be able to help a bill at least get a fair hearing. He said the number of votes needed to “blast” a bill has changed over time as numbers of majority and minority members have changed.
The idea Democrats would somehow be seizing control if the amendment passed had Rep. Jim Hamilton, D-Bozeman, “flabbergasted” given the minority has just 32 votes: “I don’t think we’re going to get to rule anything.”
And Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, said the majority, whether it’s Republicans or Democrats, should err on fairly hearing more voices.
Plus, he said if Republicans aren’t strong enough to have their way with legislation during a floor debate, “We have something seriously the matter here.”
In the minority, Democrats supported the bill, and Rep. Derek Harvey, D-Butte, said he did so with the busiest marathon days of the session in mind. In some cases, he said bills don’t even get proper notice for constituents to be able to comment in committee.
“This is a good amendment for that reason,” Harvey said.
(He said if the majority would pledge a session that was so smooth, there’d never be a situation where a bill wasn’t properly heard, he’d change his vote.)
Republicans have said their high numbers can also mean wide disagreement, and they split on that amendment and the rules in general, which the committee adopted 14-8 on Monday, the first day of the session.
In addition to Buttrey, Republican representatives in favor of the amendment were the following: Larry Brewster of Billings; Michele Binkley of Hamilton; Dave Bedey of Hamilton; and Chairman Casey Knudsen of Malta.
Republicans who opposed it were the following: Schillinger; Brandon Ler of Savage; Neil Duram of Eureka; Paul Fielder of Thompson Falls; Steve Gunderson of Libby; Lola Sheldon-Galloway of Great Falls; Amy Regier of Kalispell; Ron Marshall of Hamilton; Jedediah Hinkle of Belgrade; and Rhonda Knudsen of Culbertson.
Democrats all voted in support.
Keila Szpaller is deputy editor of the Daily Montanan, a nonprofit newsroom. To read the article as originally published, click here.