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Montana politics, elections and legislative news

Montana Republicans Deny Democrats' Proposed Legislative Rule Changes

Montana House chambers.
William Marcus
An effort by Democratic leadership to get some so-called "silver bullet" bills this legislative session, like they had in 2015, was denied by Republicans this week in a rules committee.

An effort by Democratic leadership to get some so-called  "silver bullet" bills this legislative session, like they had in 2015, was denied by Republicans this week in a rules committee.

The term "silver bullet" was created in the 2015 session to describe the process of moving legislation from a committee onto the House floor with a simple majority vote. That usually requires a supermajority, which makes it easier for a majority party to block bills they don’t like.

During a rules committee meeting Wednesday, House Democratic Minority Leader Jenny Eck hoped to change that. Eck wants any simple majority to be able to move legislation onto the House floor:

"If the majority wants a bill to pass, they should have that opportunity. And we shouldn’t use strategic tricks to keep bills from passing when that’s what the majority wants," Eck says

But Republican Representative Jeff Essmann, who serves as chair of this year’s House rules committee, says the supermajority requirement is necessary for efficiency in the legislature:

"Because the experience had been bills that had been tabled in committees were getting blasted out with simple majorities and then ending up being debated on the floor and then killed," Essman says.

Last session, the Democratic minority reached an agreement with moderate Republicans to allow select pieces of legislation to pass out of committee with a simple majority.

It was by using a so called "silver bullet" that Montana’s Medicaid expansion got out of committee and eventually became law.

No such agreement between Democrats and Republicans have been made yet this year.

The rules committee for the legislative session will meet again in the first days of January, when lawmakers will officially adopt the rules for the 2017 session.

Find more Montana Legislature news.

Corin Cates-Carney manages MTPR’s daily and long-term news projects. After spending more than five years living and reporting across Western and Central Montana, he became news director in early 2020.
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