HELENA — With less than a third of the legislative session left, the Montana House began early on Friday to debate bills ahead of the weekend transmittal deadline for bills. By the end of Saturday, all bills tied to revenue need to pass at least one chamber to stay alive.
In the morning, the House voted on several proposed constitutional amendments.
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House Bills HB 821 and HB 822, sponsored by Rep. Jodee Echart, R-Billings, would change the threshold for voters to pass constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60 percent of the total vote.
“I urge you to consider voting for this so that Montanans have the voice that Montanans need without big money from out-of-state meddling in our affairs,” said Echart.
Opponents of HB 821 and HB 822 say the amendments would limit voters’ influence on their state.
“It’s a simple bill that just changes the threshold from 50 percent to 60 percent, that’s moving the goalposts on citizen initiatives,” said Rep. Kelly Kortum, D-Bozeman. “Taking and directly challenging the rights of our citizens and the right to initiative and their right to vote on legislative referendums.”
Both bills passed second reading on a party-line vote, 58 to 42, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.
A third proposed amendment, HB 921 from Rep. Tom Millett, R-Marion, was also debated on Friday. HB 921 would prohibit the distribution of child pornography and allow civil lawsuits to be brought against organizations that do.
Opponents of HB 921 say it could impact law enforcement sting operations. HB 921 passed second reading 56 to 44.
Although all three constitutional amendment bills passed their second reading votes, unless the bills gain support from Democrats, they will not have the required two-thirds majority of votes to be placed on the ballot for voters.
Later in the day, the House debated HB 925 from Rep. Amy Regier, R-Kalispell. The bill would require social media platforms to provide safeguards for children using their apps.
“For years, Big Tech has allowed bullying, harassment and inappropriate content to flow freely on kids' social media feeds and is used addiction-inducing algorithms against them,” said Regier.
Opponents said they strongly support the intent behind the bill, but worry about how HB 925 would be implemented as written.
Minority Leader Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula, expressed her concern for how an age verification would work.
“We're handing our information to these companies along with all the kids,” Sullivan said. “And, that there's not enough federal privacy requirements yet in law to make me comfortable giving all of that information to big social media companies, including our biometric facial patterns.”
HB 925 passed second reading 57 to 43.
The House also endorsed HB 880, sponsored by Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, which would create a Medicaid stabilization fund in case federal funding is reduced in the biennium. That bill passed second reading 53 to 47.
The House will be back on Saturday to continue its work before the revenue transmittal deadline.
