![A screen capture from the Montana Public Affairs Network showing protesters in the Montana House gallery chanting "let her speak" after Rep. Zooey Zepher was repeatedly denied the opportunity to testify on bills. Zephyr, who is transgender, has been blocked from speaking since last week. That's when she told supporters of a bill to ban gender-affirming care that when they bowed their heads in prayer, she hoped they would see "blood on [their] hands."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ec7ddfb/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1302x754+0+0/resize/840x486!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd7%2F6d%2Fed5b737f4a67b3e98e462e5ef748%2Fzephyr-protest.png)
The Montana House of Representatives canceled their floor session Tuesday after protesters were arrested in the chamber the day before.
Speaker of the House Matt Regier did not say why the chamber did not resume their work Tuesday and would not take questions during a briefing with the press.
House Minority Leader Kim Abbott said the break was needed.
“I think we can all sort of regroup and since we did push deadlines, we can still get our work done,” Abbott said.
Monday’s session was interrupted by protesters demanding that Missoula Representative Zooey Zephyr be recognized to speak. The House Speaker says Zephyr is not being silenced and she can speak if she apologizes for comments made in the chamber last week.
The delay in legislative action comes in the waning days of the 68th Legislature. This session has seen the most bills since 1973, and lawmakers are racing against the clock with less than nine days left.
Both the House and Senate voted Monday to push back a Wednesday transmittal deadline.
With dozens of bills still needing to pass out of committee the Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick told lawmakers they’ll need to work over the weekend.
“We have an incredible backlog of bills over in Finance and Claims, it's going to be very difficult for all those to get out in a timely fashion and do our work.” Fitzpatrick said.
The Legislature has a constitutionally mandated 90 days to meet and pass a state budget for the biennium.
