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Bill to eliminate dozens of routine state agency reports draws wide agency support
Summary
Representative Julie Darling presented House Bill 562 to repeal a set of recurring agency reports that agencies and the lieutenant governor said are outdated, duplicative or rarely used. Multiple state agencies testified that removing the requirements would free staff time without eliminating data access for the legislature.
Representative Julie Darling told the Senate State Administration Committee House Bill 562 would remove a set of agency reporting mandates that state officials consider outdated or duplicative. Darling said the amendment she is carrying grew from an initial nine reports to roughly 15 across multiple agencies.
Lieutenant Governor Kristin Juras told the committee the effort responds to a Montana Code Annotated inventory of reporting requirements and that the agencies asking for relief identified reports that are "outdated, duplicative, ... and not being used and no longer serve the purpose for which they were created."
Agency witnesses detailed staff time and low usefulness for several reports. Larry Flynn, deputy director for the Department of Transportation, said four DOT reports together represent only a fraction of DOT’s budget and that one reporting requirement has never produced an applicant in his 30 years of service. James Fehr, deputy director at the Department of Environmental Quality, said one compliance and enforcement report can take roughly 200 employee hours every two years.
Erin Weisgerber of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation told the committee the annual reporting requirement for the state water plan is an implementation‑period burden and that DNRC already makes the plan and related information available online; the department said the next comprehensive revision of the plan is due in 2035. DNRC also described related reports on hydroelectric study capacity and trust‑lands reporting as duplicative of materials already produced for the Environmental Quality Council and agency websites.
Other agencies represented included the Department of Public Health and Human Services, Department of Commerce, Department of Administration and Fish, Wildlife & Parks; proponents said the information remains available on request and the elimination of routine reports would let staff focus on core program work.
Senators asked whether the reports originated with interim committees; the sponsor and witnesses said many reporting obligations began as interim requests or targeted studies and then became recurring statutory duties over time. DEQ witnesses said the compliance and enforcement report was originally published starting in 1997 or 1998 and that in recent years it has drawn few follow‑up questions from legislators.
The committee heard proponents and informational witnesses; no opponents appeared in the room. Representative Darling closed by asking the committee to pass the bill.
The hearing was closed for committee consideration.
