House extends Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls task force through 2023

Representative Angela Romero moved the House to adopt the first substitute to House Bill 41 and extend the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls Task Force through February 2023. Romero said the task force, created in the previous session, had met only twice because of COVID and needs more time to work with tribal communities, law enforcement and other stakeholders.

"We just wanted to extend the task force to 02/2023 and the technical changes we wanna have a meeting before July 1," Romero said during her floor remarks. She described the task force—s purpose as examining issues surrounding murdered and missing indigenous women, girls and two-spirit individuals and noted variations in living situations among indigenous community members, including both urban and reservation residents.

Representative Kelly (Lyman) rose in support, saying the problem is "very real" and that predators target vulnerable community members. "I can attest that this is not signaling," Lyman said, urging colleagues to back the bill.

There was no recorded opposition during floor debate. The House voted to adopt the first substitute and then passed First Substitute HB 41 by voice roll call, 73 yes, 0 no. The bill will be transmitted to the Senate for further consideration.

The extension preserves the task force—s role in coordinating tribal outreach, law enforcement collaboration and community education and sets a new date for required meetings to continue its work. The sponsor said the technical change also included a requirement for a meeting before July 1 to advance the work paused during the pandemic.

The House took up the measure on the third-reading calendar and voted later the same day to send the bill to the Senate.