From Montana Democrats.org:
It is conference committee time at the Legislature. Conference committees are established when both the House and the Senate do not concur on a bill and the differences have to be ironed out in these committees. Three members are appointed from each chamber (two Republicans and one Democrat) by the leader of each chamber.
After the appointment of the members, conference committees will then meet and vote to pass out a compromise version of a bill which both chambers must pass before it is sent over to the Governor's desk. On Tuesday, two conference committees met to do just that.
SB 116, Revise confidentiality provisions related to child protect services case, sponsored by Sen. Dennis Lenz (R-Billings) builds upon a past bill that gives lawmakers the ability to review case records if a family requests it. SB 116 would let lawmakers take notes to discuss what they read with families, among other changes to the timeline for the health department to provide the information. Lawyers must agree to confidentiality for what they view otherwise.
SB 116 has received wide bipartisan support every time legislators have voted on it, but it has been amended a handful of times in both the House and the Senate. Like previous votes, the conference committee vote on SB 116 was bipartisan with all six members voting in favor of a compromise version to send to the House and Senate for consideration.
HB 576, Revise laws related to water and coal mining, sponsored by Rep. Rhonda Knudsen (R-Culbertson) would change water quality rules related to coal mining, passed out of the House largely on party lines. It would direct the DEQ to classify coal mining activities impacting ephemeral and intermittent streams as a “nonsignificant activity” subject to less stringent environmental review. It garnered support from mining companies and NorthWestern Energy. Environmental groups and ranchers seeing geological and water impacts from mining oppose it.
This bill has found less bipartisan support compared to SB 116, with Republicans voting in favor of HB 576 and Democrats largely opposed. The conference committee was no different, as all four Republicans voted to move it out of committee, while the two Democrats voted no.
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