Representative Fiona Nave, chair of the Section D Public Safety Subcommittee, called the panel to order on Jan. 9 and opened the committee's first meeting of the 2025 session with organizational business and training on the governor's House Bill 2 budget process. "This is my first time as chair. I am very honored to have this position," Nave said, adding the subcommittee will press agencies on measurable performance tied to taxpayer dollars.

Walker Hopkins, lead staff for the Legislative Fiscal Division, delivered a roughly hour-long training on how the subcommittee will review the governor's House Bill 2 submission, explaining the committee's role in recommending changes to the full appropriations committees and walking members through budget concepts they will repeatedly encounter. "We will be working in the 2027 biennium session," Hopkins said, describing the base budget as "fiscal year 2025 ongoing appropriations" and distinguishing present law adjustments from new proposals.

Hopkins reviewed specific technical vocabulary members should expect in hearings: DP1 (personal services adjustments), DP2 (fixed costs), DP3 (inflation/deflation adjustments), decision packages designated as ongoing or 1-time-only (OTO), and the shift from using "FTE" to "positions budgeted (PB)." He also summarized fund types—general fund, state special revenue and federal special revenue—plus enterprise and internal service funds, and noted that internal service rates are subject to subcommittee approval while enterprise funds are reviewed but not voted on.

The subcommittee set several procedural rules for upcoming hearings: meetings will normally run 8:30 a.m. to noon in Room 317A; a quorum requires 4 of the 7 members; agency materials should be submitted at least one week before hearings; agency presentations should be limited to about 10–15 minutes per division; and public in-person or online verbal testimony will be limited to three minutes unless written materials are provided at least two hours before the meeting. Hopkins said agendas and agency materials will be posted on the Legislative Fiscal Division page of leg.mt.gov and updated daily.

On budgeting specifics, Hopkins described how the base budget incorporates ongoing appropriations from prior sessions and may also reflect adjustments made by executive fiscal transfers during the interim. He cautioned that some fiscal transfers (for example, moving year 2 money to year 1) do not alter the starting point calculation in the same way, and he said that some agencies had requested biennial budgeting, which allows spending flexibility across the two years of the biennium.

Committee members asked procedural and substantive questions during the training. Chair Nave and members pressed on visibility for large cost centers such as information technology when agencies reorganize programs. Hopkins replied the expenditure system can show detailed sub-classes for IT and other functions, though the printed budget book may not show that level of reporting without supplemental materials.

Roy Caldwell, sergeant-at-arms staff assigned to the committee, presented an emergency-procedures briefing for the committee room. Caldwell reviewed lockdown and evacuation plans for Room 317, identified evacuation routes and assembly points, and described where first-aid equipment and automated external defibrillators are located in the capitol building.

The meeting concluded with brief committee business and public comment. Heather O'Loughlin of the Montana Budget and Policy Center and Beth Brenneman of the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence introduced their organizations and said they will track and follow section d budget hearings. Hopkins said he would provide members with agency contact lists and a supplemental spreadsheet of reporting-level budget requests before the next meeting.

No formal motions or votes were taken at the Jan. 9 meeting; the subcommittee recessed after setting its information and procedure framework and scheduling the Public Service Commission hearing for the following Monday.