Montana Senate receives House bill, refers multiple measures to committee and recesses until evening

The Montana Senate recorded the transmission of House Bill 1 from the House, introduced multiple senate bills that were read and referred to committee, announced committee meeting times and recessed until 6:40 p.m.

During opening business, the secretary announced that “48 senators are present. Senator Tzitzak is excused,” establishing a quorum for the session. The clerk then informed the Senate that the House had read House Bill 1 three times, passed it and transmitted it to the Senate for concurrence: “House bill 1, Jones,” the clerk said.

Senators also introduced and referred several measures. The floor record shows that Senate bills 125 through 130 and House Bill 1 were introduced, read the first time and referred to committee. Senate Bill 131 was introduced “in red” and Senate bills 92 through 102 and 121 through 124 were referred to committee. The chamber did not debate those measures on the floor during this brief session.

Committee chairs used their announcements to set meeting times and locations. Among the notices: Senate Public Health will meet today at 3:00 p.m. in Room 317; State Administration will meet today at 3:00 p.m. in Room 335; Natural Resources will meet today at 3:00 p.m.; Senate Tax will meet tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.; Business and Labor will meet tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.; Judiciary will meet tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.; and Education will meet tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. A budget subcommittee and health and human services budget committee also announced meetings for the next day. Several announcements included the number of bills to be considered by that committee, for example Natural Resources noted it would consider four bills.

Late in the session, Majority Leader Mcgillivray moved to recess the Senate until 6:40 p.m., saying, “I move that senate recess until 06:40PM tonight.” The motion was adopted by voice vote after the chair called for ayes and noes: “All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, no. And the ayes have it.” The Senate recessed to reconvene for the governor’s State of the State address later in the evening.

The actions recorded on the floor were procedural: transmission of a House-passed bill to the Senate, first readings and committee referrals of multiple bills, scheduling of committee hearings, and a recess. No floor debate on the legislation or committee reports occurred during the portion of the session recorded here.