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Bill to give unique web links to campaign reports aims to improve public access
Summary
Representative Lucas Schubert proposed HB 383 to require the Commissioner of Political Practices’ SIRS system to expose unique, shareable URLs for individual reports and search results; the commissioner’s staff said the system is old but willing to work on changes and the fiscal impact is under review.
Representative Lucas Schubert opened the House State Administration hearing on House Bill 383, asking the committee to require unique, shareable URLs for each report, candidate profile or search result in the Commissioner of Political Practices’ electronic reporting system (SIRS). Schubert said the current system returns the same top-level URL for different searches, preventing direct linking to a particular finance report.
Schubert showed examples in his handout comparing Montana’s SIRS to Idaho’s campaign finance site and the federal FEC, both of which use unique web addresses to let users share specific reports. “This is common Internet practice,” Schubert said, urging a do-pass recommendation.
Kim Trujillo, compliance specialist supervisor at the Commissioner of Political Practices (COPP), appeared as an informational witness and said the COPP staff had not yet fully worked through technical implications of the sponsor’s request, but that the system is older and changes would require coding and database work. Trujillo said the office was willing to work with the sponsor if the committee passed the policy change.
Committee members pressed on cost and technical feasibility. Vice Chair Quandt asked whether search terms would be dynamic queries or static links; Schubert said the intent was that search results and candidate profiles produce reproducible, shareable URLs. Trujillo said the technical work could require substantial effort and rewrite of connections to the underlying database. Representative Perry asked the sponsor to seek a fiscal estimate; Schubert agreed to pursue fiscal details. An agency IT witness (SIRS staff) cautioned that the underlying database is older and that expanding capabilities could risk performance issues unless the backend is addressed.
No opposition testimony was recorded. The hearing closed with the sponsor urging modernization of public access and committing to follow up on cost estimates.
