(upbeat music) - [Jackie] Happening now on "The Rundown".

- It's gonna be a long day.

We'll see where we get - [Jackie] The capital is quiet as legislators break for the transmittal deadline and prepare for the second half of the session.

- The ability for Montanans to engage in the legislative process was cut short to say the least.

- And Democratic and Republican leadership share their vision of what's next.

- I think there's just a lot of good things with going through this process right now.

- I am Jackie Coffin and "The Rundown:Capitol Report" starts now.

- [Jackie] "The Rundown" is made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends and values of importance to Montanans.

"The Rundown:Capital Report" takes place primarily in Helena which is the original land of the Salish, Pondera, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Bannock and Apsáalooke people.

- [Jackie] Welcome and thank you for joining me for another installment of "The Rundown:Capital report".

Legislators are home this week, and so am I, as we move through the transmittal break which marks the halfway point of the legislative session.

I'll bring you highlights from the last two days of the house and Senate floor sessions, as well as reflect on some of the big topics and bills we've seen in the first half of the session.

And talk to party leaders about what they're expecting for the second half of the session.

Then I'll take you out to the Shields Valley to talk about how some of the Governor's proposed tax cuts could impact Montana farmers and ranchers.

Let's begin.

The transmittal deadline falls on the 45th day of session, officially marking the halfway point.

It's when all bills must have passed through one chamber either the house or Senate and be ready to move on to the other chamber.

When I say all bills, this does not include legislation moving around money, like our state budget.

The transmittal deadline for revenue and appropriations bills is April 1st.

This session is different than we've seen in the last 16 years.

As Republicans have controlled the house, the Senate, and the Governor's office The legislation moving through reflects that.

- It's a right that's given by God and granted in the constitution.

- A bill to reign in what has become the wild West of the abortion industry.

- [Jackie] So far, this session, there have been 1,121 bills introduced with more than 400 being pushed through committee hearings and floor hearings in the last week before the March 3rd deadline.

By Monday and Tuesday, the last days of session this week, the house and Senate were stacking the agendas with dozens and dozens of bills.

- Members what's your pleasure, we have one more agenda if we want, it's 20 bills.

I feel like we should go to the board, but I've spoken with the minority leader.

She's ready to power through it.

I don't know how everybody else is.

If you're willing to do that, we can do that.

We can take about a 20 minute break and let everybody stretch their legs, get the agenda out, and then we'll have numerous third readings.

- In this process there has been criticism that there are too many bills for lawmakers and the public alike to fully consider and have their voices heard.

But the different parties have different positions on this.

This week, I spoke to the president of the Senate, Senator Mark Blasdel, a Republican from Bigfork.

And Senate minority leader, Senator Jill Cohenour, a Democrat from Helena.

- Well, if you read the newspaper today you saw the numbers of bills in the last week.

That is unheard of.

I can't even, I mean you just know that those bills were not embedded like they should have been.

And the ability for Montanans to engage in the legislative process was cut short to say the least.

When you're having 20 bills in a committee in one day and one minute testimony, how can those bills even get the full vetting that is necessary for them to make it through this process?

I'm really disappointed in that the way that the bills were scheduled.

There was a lot, you know, when you especially like in the judiciary committee usually there's a judicial twist to the bill but there's a policy issue.

So a lot of those could have gone to the policy committees.

They could have gone to the public health committee.

They could have come to the tax committee.

They could have come to several other committees.

And so the scheduling for me, I think, was the toughest part because we didn't have a lot of bills in the tax committee.

I know that highways and transportation didn't have a lot of bills.

You know, there's other policy committees that could have taken a lot of that burden, but they chose not to do that.

And so to me, that was kind of indicative of how we've been doing this whole session.

You put pressure on Montanans to try to be able to participate in this and then make it as difficult as possible.

We heard time and time again in different committees that folks tried to get in, tried to actually testify.

And then, you know, they were cut short or they weren't able to actually get in.

So they're trying to send emails to us and say, "I was on, I raised my hand.

I tried to get in."

And so that really, really made that difficult especially when folks are still trying to be healthy and stay out of the legislature in order to keep themselves safe.

So that's kinda my take on it.

I think we could've done a better job.

And so for me, it was a difficult week to just watch Montanans not be able to fully participate in the process of making good legislation.

- From your experience in the Montana legislature would you say that the volume of bills that we saw right before transmittal deadline or at least the process there at the end of them all, maybe getting stuck until the end or caught up at the end, is that more than you've experienced in the past or you've seen in the past?

- Not necessarily, usually transmittal break is always really hectic and there's a lot condensed into a short amount of time.

You know, we've also discussed that the drafters had some new software that took a little bit of time for them to work through the process of the drafting but also the amendment process.

So that slowed a few things down, especially early.

But I also as I've said, you have a large amount of new representatives and legislators.

And for the first month they're getting accustomed to how the process works.

And I think you see a lot of times that bills that maybe they weren't going to bring they decided to jump in and give them a shot towards the end of the session too.

So no there's always an influx of bills.

I've faced it when I was a chairman before.

So it's pretty much normal for that time.

- And Democrats have criticized this particular session and saying that this mad rush of bills at the end or as they say does not allow for proper vetting or proper hearings.

And you said earlier, you don't think that's the case.

Would you agree or disagree or how would you respond to that criticism?

- Well, the challenge always is at the end.

It shortens the amount of hearings.

We also have parts in our rules that allow for a shortened time span to be able to schedule a bill hearing as we get up against this crunch.

But if you look back over previous sessions especially when you have a new incoming governor you will be able to look and see that there was more bills introduced those years as more people bring ideas.

And obviously the Senate had a number of resolutions and so forth but I look back to 2005 and now although that's the end of the session, but typically there's not a lot of bills introduced after transmittal.

2005 had 806 in the house and 526 total in the Senate that session.

Now we're not all the way to that part of the session, but realistically, right now we're at about 621 in the house and 373 in the Senate.

So that's about 140 bills less than the Senate for 2005.

Now that doesn't take in study resolutions or resolutions but I think that's a different component.

- [Jackie] So how do the numbers compare?

Eric Dietrich, a reporter with the "Montana Free Press" who also covers the legislature crunched the numbers and put together data sets and graphics.

He gave me permission to use them in my story.

The "Montana Free Press" datasets show that 2021 does stick out for the push of bills seen by transmittal deadline.

And there are a lot of bills being sent to the house judiciary committee, which is comprised of 12 Republicans and seven Democrats.

- House of judiciary committee will come to order.

- [Jackie] Some of the most controversial bills we have seen this session have been referred to the house judiciary committee for hearings and votes to send them up to the floor.

- That there will no longer be women's sports.

- It is unethical to intentionally harm an innocent immature human being.

- [Jackie] Some of the big bills we have seen so far this session regulate guns, abortion, elections, the rights of transgender Montanans, and the response to disasters and emergencies in response to COVID-19.

- We need to protect businesses, nonprofits, places of worship and healthcare providers from lawsuits.

If they make a good faith effort to protect individuals from the spread of the Corona virus and follow clear public health guidelines.

- [Jackie] The first bill signed into law by Governor Greg Gianforte, shields Montana businesses, schools, healthcare providers, and more from lawsuits related to COVID-19 illnesses or deaths.

Signing Senate bill 65 into law in February allowed Gianforte to ultimately rescind Montana statewide mask mandate.

- And we will emphasize personal responsibility over mandates.

- [Jackie] Other bills related to COVID-19 that cleared the transmittal deadline limit the governor's power in declaring a state of emergency or disaster for an extended amount of time.

And also limit the Governor's ability to distribute federal relief funding.

These bills redirect a lot of that authority to the legislature.

- What we're doing here is this, we're making it so that after 60 days the legislature has a vote to whether it continues.

So if you look at page two, a state of emergency may not continue longer than 60 days unless continuing conditions of the state emergency exist which must be determined by a declaration of the legislature, by joints resolution or a poll of its members of the legislature.

The whole purpose of what I'm trying to do with this bill is I'm trying to bring the legislature, the people's house, both Senate and house into the process so that their elected officials other than just the governor, get to choose whether we continue an emergency or disaster situation.

- [Jackie] There are also bills that limit the authority of local health boards in issuing mandates and orders.

The second bill, the governor signed was house bill 102 carried by representative Seth Berglee a Republican from Joliet which expands concealed and open carry in Montana and effectively establishes the most wide open college campus carry allowance in the country.

- It's my pleasure to bring house bill 102 recognizing that the citizens of Montana have the ability to defend themselves.

And I trust them with that responsibility.

House bill 102 does several things.

It allows for people to carry concealed firearms with the same amount of training in the same areas, in areas they can already carry open carry and it erases the invisible line around our colleges.

And allows adults to include veterans that have served overseas to carry on college campuses.

Second amendment has been a priority for the Republican majority and I thank Governor Gianforte for signing this bill.

- [Jackie] Parts of HB 102 took effect with the Governor's signature that campus carry component does not take effect until June 1st.

A set of four controversial anti-abortion bills were big talking point for the first half of session and have already cleared both chambers of the house and Senate making them ready for the Governor's signature.

- Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair for calling on me I'm gonna rise in support of the bill.

- Let's just all be honest with ourselves.

If one of our rovers on Mars have found a single celled organism tomorrow every single headline in every single newspaper on the face of planet earth would be life found on Mars.

And so I think at the very least within the confines of this argument, we should be treating the reality as reality.

Admitting at the very least that we are talking about an actual life Mr. Chairman.

- Speak to today on this bill.

I stand before you today in a post house bill 171.

I'm sure you're thinking that it's just another Democrat preaching pro-choice.

But what I'd like to share with you is that I was born and raised Catholic and I had my own views of what abortion is.

And I also firmly believe that pro-choice is not pro-abortion.

- Do we want a government that tells us how many kids that we can have?

There are governments in the world that tell people the size of their family.

Bodily autonomy relationship between patients and doctors.

This is a bad bill.

Montanans value our right to privacy so much that it's enshrined in the constitution as many people on both sides of the aisle have mentioned.

I urge you to respect privacy of women and people going forward in medical care.

And I'll just close by saying to my friends and my family who have had abortions, I'm sorry you have to listen to some of the judgmental language on the floor today.

I love you and I respect you, and I support you.

Please vote no.

- I stand in support of this bill because I am a woman who chooses life and a woman who knows that an abortion of a five month old pre-born baby has nothing to do with women's health, but it has everything to do with the child's health.

The premier characteristic of an advanced society is that we value life.

If you look at citizens in undeveloped countries you see that the list of, you see that the lives of individuals are cheap and expendable.

As Americans and Montanans we recognize that individuals are important.

We recognize the potential of anyone to achieve and improve his or her circumstances.

- [Jackie] Also on the matter of social issues were two bills that limit the rights of transgender Montanans.

- We come to you during every single one of these hearings and ask you to just leave us alone.

And we're not mentally ill. We're people with jobs and families that we're trying to support.

We're people who pay our mortgages, pay our rents.

And generally just try to go about our lives without being harassed.

With trying to maintain our physical safety and make Montana a better place to live for everybody.

We're part of that.

The intent of this bill, as far as I can tell from the supporters is to push trans people out of this state.

We're not going anywhere and we'd appreciate it if you left us alone.

- [Jackie] House bill 112 says K-12 and collegiate athletes must compete in sports based on their sex at birth.

- This bill I think it's a solution looking for a problem.

And why do I say that?

Because I called the school board association.

They don't even have a policy on this.

So I thought, okay I'll call the Montana high school association.

They rule everything for sports.

They tell you when you can practice, when you can't, if you can play, if you didn't practice all kinds of things.

The guy's has been there for 24 years.

Hasn't had an issue at how honest.

This party always says that we're about local control.

So I'm thinking the boys that are in girls that are in local control, the elected school board trustees who get big bucks, ha ha.

They don't even get paid and they do a ton of work for the good of all.

So where is the local control?

And as a colleague across the aisle just said I think this bill's unconstitutional.

It's probably gonna die by fiscal year or the fact that it goes to court.

So I think this much ado about nothing.

We haven't really had a problem.

So I'm gonna be voting no on this one - [Jackie] That bill passed the house early on but it's companion bill HB 113 died in third reading.

- Mr. Speaker 49 representatives have voted aye 51 have voted no.

House bill 113 has failed to pass the house.

- [Jackie] HB 113 prohibits trans youth from accessing sex altering surgical and medical procedures.

Though it died, bill sponsor, representative John Fuller, a Republican from Whitefish, revived the effort in another bill, house bill 427 that ultimately passed in the week before transmittal deadline.

- The youth health protection act is designed to protect children, children from the administration of drugs and chemicals and from the imposition of surgical procedures for the purpose of causing the child to physically appear more like a person of the opposite sex and less like his or her own sex or to conform to a gender identity in congruent with the child's sex - [Jackie] Right to work bills, which weakens unions emerged in the last few weeks and drew hundreds of people to the Capitol.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week in the last floor sessions, before the transmittal deadline both the house and the Senate voted down the right to work and other anti-union bills.

But not every bill was controversial or divisive, Republicans and Democrats together celebrated the passage of bills expanding telemedicine across Montana.

- Well, yesterday was a tough and long day.

We had some great wins.

We had a bill to permanently expand telehealth in Montana and require Medicaid to pay for those visits.

That'll be good for all Montanans across the state.

We had a bill to require providers to share the costs of non-emergency services upfront.

So that folks know how much stuff costs before they commit.

And we also increase the pay of Montana highway patrol officers, as well as allowing national guard members to get in-state tuition at a Montana college for graduate work.

That really is a great honor for those who sacrificed the most for us.

We got a couple of a data privacy bills through which I think is fantastic.

The one is Senator Bennett and it requires an app to get your permission before they share your location data.

I mean that was a big win yesterday.

While it's disappointing that we spent so much of our time on bills that take away the rights and freedoms of Montanans.

I'm proud that Democrats stood strong against the numerous attacks on workers and were able to kill those right to work bills yesterday.

We Democrats are reliable friends of Montana labor.

I'm also pleased yesterday that we were able to vote down a bill that would make it easier to impeach judges.

Some bad bills that seek to strengthen parental rights, but then end up with extreme consequences to that.

And we also killed some bills that interfere in the decisions between patients and their doctors, multiple times.

When we come back next week, Democrats will remain focused on finding ways to pass meaningful legislation for Montanans and we'll advocate for a responsible budget.

That's gonna be our hard work for the next few months.

- Well I think obviously you have a number of items.

So working with the Governor on his Montana comeback plan.

And ways to just reduce or make doing business in the state of Montana easier.

Obviously we'll be taking a look at the initiative to implement the recreational marijuana that will be coming in the second half of the session.

And I know there'll be a lot of work done on that.

The budget will take center stage, the second half of the session as well.

And in regards to the COVID relief money, that came down from the federal government and how we allocate that.

So those will be some big, big options and things to deal with throughout.

But I think we also need to go back to a lot of business issues.

And for Republicans, the expansion of second amendment rights through house bill 102 was a very important and significant item.

And also passing three very important pieces of legislation dealing with pro-life.

- [Jackie] Monday is a travel day for legislators to return to Helena in the second half of the legislative session begins Tuesday.

With the session in transmittal, Governor Greg Gianforte is traveling this week to support policy measures he campaigned on.

On Thursday he visited the Hayhook ranch in the Shields Valley, North of Livingston.

- Oh, we're a cow calf operation.

We have about 180 yearlings out here.

So we're feeding them out.

We'll be A-ing them here come June and they'll be, we'll be calving them out next year.

- Here Gianforte discussed his big jobs act which provides tax breaks for businesses by raising the bar of taxable equipment from $100,000 to $200,000.

- Jackie, farmers and ranchers work really hard to produce a great product and make ends meet.

And the Big Jobs Act really gives them a relief.

It's going to take 1500 farms and ranches off the business equipment tax rolls.

That's money that they can invest back in new equipment or fence mending or other other enhancements on their operations.

- [Jackie] I asked Gianforte how we as a state will make up for the revenue lost on taxing the lower threshold of equipment.

- We've been very straightforward in our conservative budget.

We've held the line on new spending.

That's allowed us to provide breaks for farmers and ranchers and these dollars that we're letting our small businesses keep they're gonna spend it downtown.

That's going to create more economic gain and we'll get that back again.

- [Jackie] The proposal, which is currently working its way through the legislative process having already passed the house has been criticized by opponents who say the money won't actually trickle down into local economies.

But for Stryker Anderson and the Hayhook ranch, it will be welcomed.

- My name is Stryker Anderson.

We are at the Hayhook ranch located in Shields Valley about 10 miles North of Livingston.

- [Jackie] Stryker Anderson is the third generation of his family to work the Hayhook ranch and says hitting the $100,000 dollar mark in equipment is easy to do on a ranch.

- Well, a new swather is $180,000 for one piece of equipment.

A tractor like this behind just close.

Some of these can be up to a quarter million dollars.

And when you're working, you know with nickels and dimes at the end of every year because ranching has so many expenses that go with it and cows don't pay as much as they used to.

So that change from a $100,000 to 200,000 is a huge help for us out here to be able to purchase a new piece of equipment.

One that keeps breaking down every year, year after year.

It's to keep things running smoothly.

You know, sometimes you have to update.

You have to go get something new and when you don't have any extra income left after all your expenses at the end of the year that $200,000 tractor is just, it's not gonna happen.

But a 7230 John Deere tractor, we use this thing for a lot.

I mean, this thing is used year round.

This time of the year, we have the feeder on it because we're feeding every two days to our calvers.

And then as soon as spring time comes around we'll be harrowing with it.

So that's going out there and breaking up all the cow manure kind of break that fertilizer into the soil rather than having big clumps of manure out there.

And then we hook up the stackers on it for the hay time.

During the summer, we stack all the hay just like this and put it into big stacks.

Oh, there's a reason why, you know ranchers do this is because of the lifestyle.

It's hard work and it doesn't pay good.

But the fact that you can be your own boss and be out here outside working everyday.

There's a lot of reward to it.

- [Jackie] Gianforte Big Jobs Act will have to make it through the Senate before this piece of the Governor's comeback plan on which he campaigned heavily can be signed into law.

(upbeat music) That's all the time we have this week for "The Rundown:Capitol Report".

Monday is a travel day and legislators will be heading back to Helena and Tuesday the session we'll be back in full swing.

I'll be back here next Sunday.

See you then.

(upbeat music) "The Rundown" is made possible by the greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.

(upbeat music)