Senate receives House messages, schedules committee hearings and adjourns until Jan. 15

The Montana Senate at its opening session received messages from the House of Representatives transmitting several House bills, set times for committee hearings and adjourned until Jan. 15.

A chamber staff member told the Senate, “The following house bills were on this day read 3 times and passed title in history agreed to and are here with transmitted to the Senate for concurrence. House bill 16 Brewster house bill 17 thing house bill 22 Romano,” text recorded in Senate proceedings shows. The clerk’s announcement listed those House measures as transmitted to the Senate for consideration; specific bill summaries were not provided on the Senate floor.

The reminders and announcements that followed set the chamber’s committee schedule for the coming days. Senators announced several committee meeting times and rooms, including Local Government at 9 a.m.; a subcommittee at 8 a.m.; Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation at 3 p.m.; Senate Education at 3 p.m. in room 405; State Administration and Veterans Affairs at 3 p.m. in room 335; Energy at 3 p.m.; Natural Resources transportation subcommittee at 9 a.m.; and Senate Judiciary at 8 a.m. in room 303. The transcript records the times and rooms as announced on the floor; agenda items for each committee were not read on the floor during the session.

Senators also introduced visitors in the gallery. Senator Cuff introduced representatives of “Penware Pacific Northwest, Economic Region,” identifying Matt Morrison, CEO of Penware, and Nate Weigel, program manager, and noting visiting legislators from Alberta including Shane Getzen and Garth Roswell and Tim Olson, director of U.S. and Latin American international relations for Alberta, who were meeting with state leaders this week.

Senator Novak delivered a remembrance for Detective Chris Fothier of the Anaconda Police Department, who died Dec. 30. Novak asked colleagues to keep the family and law-enforcement partners in their prayers and the Senate observed a moment of silence.

Majority Leader McGillivray moved to adjourn the Senate until Jan. 15 at 1 p.m., saying, “Mister president, I move that the senate stand adjourn till January 15th at 1 o'clock, 8th legislative day.” The motion was approved by voice vote; the presiding officer declared, “The ayes have it,” and the Senate adjourned until the date named in the motion.

Several items were carried as floor announcements; no committee referrals, bill text hearings or roll-call votes on the transmitted House bills were recorded during the session on the floor. Specific bill summaries, committee agendas and fiscal notes were not read on the floor and therefore are not described here.