February 17-21, 2025

Churchill? Really?; MUS priorities stand strong; DEI enters the chat; House bills hit Senate

In 1942, after a series of tide-turning victories by the Allies in Stalingrad, the Pacific, and north Africa, Winston Churchill was urged to “ring out the bells” in celebration. Key victories had buoyed war-weary Europeans desperate for signs of hope. And while pinpricks of light were showing through the blackness, he knew a long road lay ahead. He famously told a group gathered at a luncheon that fall, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”  

As Week 7 of the 69th Montana Legislature melts away into slush, the legislative calendar — punctuated with deadlines and blind to drama — marches on. Appropriations subcommittees are finishing their work on their respective sections of HB 2, the deadline to introduce General Bills falls next week, and today is the day General Bills need to leave drafters’ desks to have any hope of being reviewed, heard, acted on, and transmitted by the March 7 deadline. By those measures it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

The Big Three

Long weeks and late nights remain, dormant bill requests have and will continue to spring to life, and outcomes are anything but certain. But for the MUS and its three legislative priorities, the beginning is ending on an undeniably positive note.

HB 2
On Wednesday, the Section E Subcommittee voted on the OCHE/MUS portion of HB 2, approving the system’s present law adjustments as well as a handful of amendments that add resources to the 1-2-Free, Montana 10,  and Graduate Medical Education programs. The version of Section E that will be folded into HB 2 and sent to the House Appropriations Committee includes:

  • an OCHE budget that contains the level of funding for and investment in system and campus programs, operations, and services that OCHE and the Governor’s office had originally negotiated;
  • funding to maintain 1-2-Free on MUS campuses, as well as extend the program to Community Colleges and Tribal Colleges;
  • ongoing funding to maintain and scale the highly successful Montana 10 program;
  • funding for the Central Application System; and
  • requested funding to allow for growth in medical residency programs.

The subcommittee did decline a request in the Governor’s budget to fund a proposal to develop a hybrid online law school at the University of Montana.

HB 13
The Senate Finance and Claims Committee heard HB 13, the state employee pay plan, Thursday evening. If the bill continues its current trajectory, discussion and any resistance may focus on the legislator pay language, but there seems to be little consternation about the state employee increases and the need for them. The Committee has not yet acted on the bill.

HB 5 and HB 10
The third pillar (not to be confused with the third rail) of the MUS legislative priorities is addressing critical infrastructure and technology needs to provide safe and healthy facilities for students and staff and to provide the physical spaces and tools that drive research and innovation. The Section F Joint Appropriations Committee on Long Range Planning will vote on HB 5 and HB 10 on Tuesday, February 25. Those measures will then join HB 2 in the House Appropriations Committee for hearings.

Just Dropped

Prodded by next week’s introduction deadline, policy bills and scheduled hearings are coming in hot. OCHE is tracking a couple with a common theme introduced just today. 

HB 618 – Provide for a Montana individual freedom act

HB 618, sponsored by Rep. George Nikolakakos (R-Great Falls), proposes five sections of new law that would prohibit “state and local government agencies … from expending funds for memberships, goods, or services from organizations that discriminate and from expending funds on diversity, equity, and inclusion or on political or social activism.” The attorney general would be positioned to review and approve certain programs and activities. DEI is defined in the bill as any program or initiative of a state or local government agency established for the purpose of:

  • influencing hiring, employment, or recruitment practices with respect to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, or religion;
  • promoting differential treatment of or providing special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, or religion;
  • promoting policies or procedures designed or implemented in reference to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, or religion, other than policies or procedures approved in writing by the attorney general's office for the sole purpose of ensuring compliance with any applicable court order or state or federal law; or
  • conducting trainings, programs, or activities designed or implemented in reference to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, disability, or religion, other than trainings, programs, or activities developed by an attorney and approved in writing by the attorney general's office for the sole purpose of ensuring compliance with any applicable court order or state or federal law.

The definition of “state or local government agency” specifically includes “university unit” and “college".

The House State Administration Committee is scheduled to hear HB 618 on Wednesday, February 26

HB 635 – Revise human rights laws to prohibit diversity, equity, and inclusion programs
Also sponsored by Rep. George Nikolakalos (R-Great Falls), HB 635 seeks to prohibit a state or local government agency from, among other things, spending public funds on a DEI program or employing an individual whose duties include creating or operating a DEI program. The bill is specific in that it may not be construed to “interfere with the sovereignty of tribal nations, reservations, or education pertaining to the history of Montana’s Indian people.” HB 635 defines a “DEI program” as a program that requires an employee to attend a training, orientation, workshop, therapy or other activity that focuses on:

  • describing or exposing structures, systems, relations of power, privilege, or subordination on the basis of race, sex, color, gender, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation;
  • describing methods to identify, dismantle, or oppose structures, systems, relations of power, privilege, or subordination on the basis of race, sex, color, gender, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation;
  • justifying differential treatment or benefit on the basis of race, sex, color, gender, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation; or
  • advancing theories of unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, transgenderism, microaggression, microinvalidation, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, ethnocentrism, structural racism or inequity, social justice, disparate impact, gender identity or theory, or any concept substantially related to any of these theories.

HB 635 has not yet been assigned to a committee.

Seeing Action

Several proposals OCHE has been following are on the move.

HB 284 - Establish an interim committee to investigate civil rights violations and censorship within the MUS
HB 284, sponsored by Rep. Caleb Hinkle (R-Belgrade) proposes to create an interim committee to investigate claims of civil rights violations and censorship from MUS students. The committee would “gather testimony on the record from Montana students on any civil rights violations or acts of censorship that the students have experienced or witnessed at Montana public universities and colleges and make findings and recommendations for state and federal officials.”

Since its introduction, HB 284 has been amended to increase the number of members from six to eight, require the membership to be split evenly by party, and increase the appropriation from $13,500  to $23,000. It still includes a Contingent Voidness clause which provides that if the funding is not appropriated, the bill is void.

The House has passed the bill and advanced it to the Senate where it has not yet been assigned to a committee.

 

HB 300 - Generally revise laws related to discrimination in education
HB 300, sponsored by Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crow (R-Billings), would make it an unlawful discriminatory practice "for an educational institution to allow a male person to participate in athletic programs designated for female persons.” It would also be considered an unlawful discriminatory practice for an educational institution to “fail to provide a person with access to a restroom, locker room, shower area, or sleeping quarter that is inaccessible by a person of the opposite sex while in use.”

This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee concurred in HB 300. Its next stop is the Senate floor.


HB 121 – Require privacy in certain restrooms, changing rooms, and sleeping quarters
HB 121 has returned from Enrolling, one of the last steps before landing on the Governor’s desk. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crow (R-Billings) will become effective immediately upon the signature of the Governor.

HB 400 – Enact the "Free to Speak" act
HB 400, sponsored by Rep. Braxton Mitchell (R-Columbia Falls), would apply to all public school students and staff, including those at postsecondary institutions. The bill provides that a student or employee may not be disciplined and the state may not take an adverse action against a student or employee for declining to:

  • identify a person's pronouns; or
  • address a person by using a name other than the person's legal name or a derivative of the person's legal name or by using a pronoun or a title that is inconsistent with the person's sex.  

HB 400 has passed the House and been transmitted to the Senate where it awaits committee assignment.

 

SB 271 - Remove prohibition on certain compensation for collegiate student-athlete's name/image/likeness
Sen. Ellie Boldman (D-Missoula) introduced SB 271 to remove the prohibition on a postsecondary institution or athletic association, conference, or organization with authority over intercollegiate sports from providing a prospective or current student athlete compensation for use of the athlete's name, image, or likeness. Sen. Boldman brought the bill in the wake of the 2024 House v. NCAA Settlement. At Tuesday’s hearing before the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee, representatives from MSU and UM testified that the bill would allow university staff to provide better guidance to student athletes on the sometimes-complicated contractual NIL arrangements they enter into with third parties.

SB 271 passed the Senate by a margin of 39-10 and has been referred to the House Education Committee, which has not yet scheduled a hearing.

Time Served

Legislative Day: 36
Percent complete: 40.00%