With the first half of the 62nd Legislative Session coming to a close last week, newspapers across the state assessed the work done at the Legislature thus far:

• Democratic Legislators Share Hope Frustrations About the Session
• Montanans And Public Employees Deserve Better from Legislature
• Vets Angry at Vote to Privatize Home
• Montana’s GOP Legislators Gaining National Attention
• Voting is A Montana Value
• Gazette Opinion: Lawmakers State Subsidies Should Be Disclosed
• Wandering Lost on the Cowboy Way
• Nullification Puts Montana on the Wrong Side of History
• GOP, Dems, Schweitzer Gird For Budget Battle in Second Half of Legislature

The newspapers are echoing the thoughts of Montanans from across the state, when they say, “What is going on in Helena?”

Hopefully, the GOP will follow Democratic leadership in the second half and focus on bringing jobs to the state and moving the economy forward, rather than their nonsensical ideas and pet policies.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of talk of “nullification” bills from the legislature. These bills seek to exempt Montana from certain federal laws that are passed. Thus far we’ve seen bills to nullify the federal health insurance reform and the endangered species act, among others.

The most overreaching of these nullification bills though belongs to Rep. Derek Skees. This bill would set up an 11 person panel that would be able to nullify any and all federal legislation. During the hearing on this bill, Rep. Ellie Hill asked whether this bill would include the opportunity to nullify such bills as those prohibiting slavery in the state. To which, Rep. Skees acknowledged that this 11 person panel could potentially nullify the abolition of slavery in Montana.

This bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee today, and will go to a full floor debate on either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

If this bill is passed through the full House, the impacts of this bill would be devastating and far reaching for the state. As one Democratic member of the House Judiciary committee put it today, “This bill would create 11 god-like legislators.” These legislators would be able to decide exactly which laws Montanans would have to abide by. This panel wouldn’t just decide on future laws; any past law would be subject to nullification by this panel. This includes:

• Women’s right to vote
• The abolition of slavery
• The direct election of U.S. Senators
• The Americans With Disabilities Act
• The Civil Rights Act

This list only encompasses a few. This bill is one of the most overreaching bills introduced this session and has the potential to seriously turn the clock back on Montanans.

Today, the House Judiciary Committee heard a bill from Rep. Kris Hansen. The bill seeks to undo protections put in place by local communities to expand on the state’s Human Rights Act. This act protects certain protected groups from discrimination in housing, employment and other public accommodations.

Opponents of the measure came from across the state to testify. Unfortunately, the Republican majority on the committee attempted to limit testimony on both sides of the issue to ten minutes. Democrats on the committee objected and even presented rules that require the public be able to at least verbally state their opposition to the bill. The Republicans on the committee ignored the rules, and refused to let opponents of the bill testify.

In response to the GOP actions, Rep. Diane Sands (D-Missoula) took to reading the names of every opponent (all 50+) of the measure and asked them to stand and be acknowledged.

After the hearing, opponents of the measure held their own hearing, next to the statue of Rep. Jeannette Rankin, where they allowed all of the opponents of the measure speak and be heard. During this informal hearing, Sen. Carol Williams and other Democratic lawmakers showed up to show their frustrations with the treatment of these Montanans that simply wanted to be heard.

Let’s be clear on what happened today. Republicans decided there wasn’t enough time to listen to people who were possibly being stripped of their rights. However, since the beginning of the legislative session, the Republicans have given full and fair hearing to the following bills:

• SB 112 – Which allows makes a hand thrown spear a legal form of hunting.
• HB 278 – Which allows every city to create their own militia.
• SJ 2 – Which urges the United States to withdraw from the United Nations.
• HB 205 – The “Birther Bill.”
• HB 384 – Which allows people to carry concealed weapons in bars, banks and churches.

These are bills, which are either unconstitutional, based on conspiracy theories or seriously threaten our public safety,  that they think are worthy of their time, however they believe bills that strip rights from Montanans aren’t worthy of full hearings. It says a lot about the priorities of the Republican Majority in the Montana Legislature.

Earlier this session, Republicans created a storm of controversy all throughout the state when it was discovered that Republican lawmakers who were attempting to make it more difficult for Montanans to get healthcare, were accepting taxpayer funded healthcare. Predictably, this hypocrisy on the part of the GOP did not sit well with Montanans.

In response to this hypocrisy, Sen. Anders Blewett (D-Great Falls) introduced a bill that would require lawmakers disclose if they are accepting taxpayer funded health care. Blewett’s goal with this bill is to improve transparency of government. He believes that Montanans deserve to know what benefits lawmakers are receiving from taxpayers.

Blewett also conceded that this bill might serve to highlight some legislative hypocrisy, when lawmakers take taxpayer funded health insurance and attempt to deny health insurance to Montanans.

This bill was heard today in Senate State Administration Committee. The committee will likely take action on this bill later this week. If approved it would face a vote from the full house within the next week.