HELENA — Tuesday was the 45th day of the Montana Legislature’s 69th session – the halfway point. In previous sessions, that would mean it was also the transmittal deadline: the day most bills need to pass the House or Senate, or they’ll die. This year, though, that deadline was pushed back three days, to give a little more time to get through a rush of bills.
“I'm glad that there's a transmittal deadline – otherwise, legislators would just keep procrastinating into 2026, I'm sure,” said Senate President Sen. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell. “So I'm glad we have that deadline. It's always a rush like this at the end, but I think, as far as the Senate sits – we haven't even done multiple boards yet, and I think we're sitting pretty good.”
(Watch the video for a look at what lawmakers must tackle by Friday.)
Lawmakers are likely to take action on hundreds of bills this week. As of Tuesday, 828 bills had been introduced in the House and 529 had been introduced in the Senate. Any of those that don’t spend money or affect state revenues need to pass through their first chamber by the 48th legislative day, Friday.
House leaders said they expect to debate about 150 bills on the floor before the transmittal deadline, and Regier said the Senate will likely vote on around 100 Wednesday and Thursday.
Legislative committees have been working overtime to determine which bills make it to the floor for a full debate. A number of committees met from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. several days last week, and some of them met again on Saturday. On Monday and Tuesday, committees were scheduled to hold hearings on more than 120 bills – and vote on whether to advance them.
“Some of the bills had short hearings,” said Senate Majority Leader Sen. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings. “But my view is, if you bring a bill the last day, that's what you can expect. A lot of these bills aren't ready. They're not well thought out, they're hastily drafted, and they deserve to die.”
Both the House and Senate will be spending all day Wednesday and Thursday on the floor, getting through as many bills as they can. For each bill, there will be a debate and an initial vote, followed by a final vote the next day. Both of those votes need to be completed by the end of Friday.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, said he felt most bills had gotten sufficient hearings in committees, but that all-day sessions make it harder to give them their due on the Senate floor.
“Most of the time, whoever’s in the chair, so to speak, running the floor, will be considerate and make sure that most people get the chance to comment,” he said. “But there is, I would just say, some more urgency because we know the number of bills we have to get through. So in that sense, the hearings maybe aren't quite as robust as they might otherwise be on the floor.”
Regier said, in some cases, he’s hoping lawmakers will err on the side of keeping bills moving ahead of the transmittal deadline.
“To keep more of the chess pieces on the chessboard, I think, makes for a better conversation at the end of the session,” he said.
Because there’s no debate before the final votes on bills, Friday’s session will likely wrap up much quicker than Wednesday’s or Thursday’s.
