Monday April 24 (Day 81 Week 17)
A big day on the House Floor today. We had 46 second reading bills to hear, but that was not the news!
We were hearing and debating SB 518, which had to do with parental involvement in education. This was another “Incident sponsored” bill, in which a school counselor didn’t report to the parents that “Jane” was thinking about becoming “John”. The counseling lasted over several school years, but there was no report to parents during that time. When “Jane” graduated and became “John”, the parents found out about the concerns that were not relayed to them by the school officials. That became SB 518 … (this is my version after hearing the bill in Judiciary). The point of the bill is that school officials must disclose important information to parents.
It was in the middle of this bill hearing that Representative Zephyr pushed his speak button. Mr. Speaker continued this week, to not recognize the Representative because the “rules of decorum” were violated during our Floor session last week. Until the Representative comes forward to House Leadership to rectify this situation, the Representative will not be allowed to address other members during our Floor Sessions. The gallery was jammed full, and extra Highway Patrol was present, as they are the agency that provides Capitol Security. Many extra TV cameras were present because we all knew this was going to happen. When Mr. Speaker would not recognize the Representative to speak, the large crowd started yelling at the top of their lungs, “Let Zooey Speak” or “Let her Speak.” We (the Representatives) were instructed (by Mr. Speaker) to move off the floor, over to the sides of the gallery, for our safety. As Legislators, none of us were the least bit fearful, but instead, way disappointed at how our Capitol had been turned into a scripted performance, to draw nation-wide attention to the LGBQ community. It took the HP a while to clear the gallery. It was reported that 7 arrests were made, but we couldn’t see it happen because we were all (except for Representative Zephyr) standing to the side, under the gallery, as instructed. He continued to stay on the Floor, holding his microphone in the air and egging the crowd on. In about an hour, the representative was gone, and the floor session continued. A little after 5:00 we adjourned. I am not far enough up the food chain to know the path forward, but if it were my decision, I would only allow the Capitol workforce and the Legislators to enter the Capitol for the few remaining days of the session, but I will know more tomorrow.
Tuesday April 23 (Day 82 Week 17)
House business was canceled today. Tomorrow we (the Republican House), will meet and try, with a 2/3 vote, to sanction Representative Zephyr permanently off the House Floor. It will take a vote of 68, and there will be NO room for even one Republican to vote “no”. I’m just not sure how this will go tomorrow, but it might be a great opportunity to get famous by voting with the minority party. It’s sad because this has never happened before. There are not many rules to deal with this kind of a situation, but there are definitely two forces in play here. As Legislators, we are to be advocates, NOT activists. The House is not set up for this type of activity. The rules of decorum have always worked. A week ago, Representative Butcher talked about a very hot place, and he ended up apologizing and was restored. In contrast, Representative Zephyr refuses to meet with the leadership, so they are forced to go down a road that no one wanted to travel. He had a way out of this, but chose this path himself … no one else to blame.
For today’s report, I will finish by posting a text from Representative Terry Falk from Kalispell. Representative Falk serves on the Appropriations Committee ($$$) and thought you might like to see things from his point of view …
Where do you send a bad legislative bill to die?
Definitely, not to the capital! My number one complaint about the process here is how difficult it is to kill anything. Two days in a row in appropriations, we’ve taken multiple bills that we killed in the morning and resurrected them that afternoon on very close votes. Now truthfully, we pared down the cost some, but they didn’t deserve to live.
Schools are getting lots and lots of dough … as noted by the governor over a month ago. He called it “record funding”. And we’ve added nearly $100 million since then. Enrollment is not growing much but even if it was, their formulas protect schools therein, since funding automatically increases more with student enrollment growth. And the administrative staff to student ratio has exploded in the last 20 years. Furthermore, in the last 20 years, Montana has gone from being in the top 5 schools in the country to the bottom 5…. just unacceptable!
That said, as citizen taxpayers, we should continue to resist and vote down ALL levies. Schools don’t need more money. What they do need is COMPETITION, where our hard-earned taxpayer funds follow the student. A great bill (and the only bill that addresses this) for this is HB562! Please contact the Governor and ask him to choose this one to sign. Possibly the most important policy bill this session.
A new fact (to me) and I confirmed it with OPI…..Did you know that to be an accredited school in Montana, you only need 15 percent of students to be a C grade or better?
Recently, a family in southwest Montana reached out to inform me that their school is teaching woke ideology of transgenderism, by a transgender transition company, using their own curriculum. This is so unacceptable. We need a change in the schools (yes, this is in Montana!) and it starts with us. I’m drafting a letter to send to the Superintendent and the School Board there.
We’re on day 80. Possibly two more weeks to go. Truthfully, there are so many money bills on the docket. I have been and will be continuing to just say “no”. Our conservative caucus, although closely unified, isn’t big enough to stop them.
We are definitely still trying hard to get more of the surplus back to you, and while it’s still alive, I’m starting to lose hope. The alternative is a bigger government, sadly.
Many, many people have made a point to tell me that they’re praying for me. Thank YOU one and all.
Lastly, soon I’m planning to send a list of school board candidates who we believe are the best conservative choices.
Wednesday April 26 (Day 83 Week 17)
This has been an historical day in Montana History, because today, we (the Republican House) voted to suspend Floor privileges for Representative Zooey Zephyr. This action took a 2/3 vote and we saw complete unity with all 68 voting Republicans. Many of us expected a huge news day and it was, for sure! It was full of news reporters and cameras.
The House Gallery will be closed until this Session ends, next week, so that made security much simpler. After the vote today, Mr. Speaker simply adjourned the Session until Thursday at 8 am, so everyone just casually left the House Floor. An absolutely brilliant move on the part of Mr. Speaker! Can you imagine what could have happened if we had tried to resume business and Representative Zephyr had refused to leave and had to be forcibly evicted? Mind you, I am just thinking out loud. We had zero indication this could have even happened, but none the less, it would have been another national headline that the state of Montana did not need.
Going forward, this changes the political climate for ever. In my district, people are very pointed and direct in questioning my positions on several issues and I appreciate that, but several more can now be added to the list. I can hear the questions already: Representative, will you vote for gender transition surgery on minors? Representative, will you vote for puberty blocking drugs for minors? Representative, will you allow State Funded Insurance to pay for these services?
Thursday April 27 (Day 84 Week 17)
The biggest change today was Representative Zephyr setting up business in a capital Hallway.
Such a busy all day on House Floor, making up for lost time. One highly debated bill was SB 14, which would give subsidies to film companies making movies in Montana. One side said they bring a lot of business to Montana and this tax relief would encourage more movies to be made here. The other side said they will come, even without tax relief. It was a 50-50 tie vote, so the bill failed. I was a “no” vote, and yes, they will still come.
Friday April 27 (Day 85 Week 17)
House Floor Session started at 1:00 today. Yesterday, we started at 8 am and quit at 8 pm … for some reason, we got behind a couple of days. We had 26 – 2nd reading bills we debated on the Floor.
There was much debate over SB 424, that would allow newly elected officials to bring in new staff. One legislator called it a “swamp reduction bill”. There was a lot of debate, but it passed along party lines 64 to 35.
Another great bill was SB 518, which allows much more transparency by parents in the educational process. It is very sad to me, but the sexual agenda that put Montana in the news in the past couple of days has entered many classrooms in Montana and America, and it has absolutely no business there! In Montana we have seen our national test scores go from one of the highest to one of the lowest and it is continually debated among Legislators. One side of the argument says more money will fix the problem. As near as anyone can tell, we are at $16,000 per student in K-12 education, so to educate one student for one year it costs taxpayers at least $16,000 per child. I’m thinking, if you figure all the building and transportation costs, plus costs to comply to the myriad of State and Federal mandates, it is really much higher. The exact number seems impossible to find.
Majority Leader Sue Vinton has proposed a Charter School Bill called a Community Choice School and this will be a contentious debate, as it will create direct competition for the public-school money.
HB 562 would allow those public-school dollars to follow the student, allow for non-certified teachers, and allow the school to choose their own curriculum. The Majority Leader argues that competition will work the same in this situation as in business … competition will improve the product. We will hear this bill next week and no one that reads this will be neutral. Each one of us will have a huge opinion on this, and if passed, it will be an absolute game changer in many communities in Montana, even in Miles City! Perhaps Sacred Heart could qualify and the folks that send their children to Sacred Heart would not have to pay two school bills.
A lot has been said this time around, by this Rep, but it is my job to inform you (and maybe raise your blood pressure)!!! Thanks for listening and reading.
What follows is a column by Representative Ed Butcher, used with his permission.
FROM THE DESK—Sen. Ed Butcher (Ret)—462-5615—4-28-2023
The State of the Montana Legislature
The past week has been a total distraction in the legislative process as the radical left tried to disrupt this process on Monday, being led by a Missoula representative (the transgender man who thinks he is a woman—Zooey Zephyr). Rep. Zephyr led a screaming demonstration of gay and lesbian supporters which resulted in throwing things from the balcony, during regular House deliberation on a dozen bills. They were protesting HB 99, passed the previous day, which made it illegal to surgically change sex organs on children less than 18 years of age. As the riot developed, the Speaker cleared the legislators out of the Chamber while riot police cleared the rioters out of the capital and arrested seven for physical confrontation.
There are strict rules concerning gallery visitors observing legislative deliberation and not making any noise during the Legislative deliberation. In addition, legislators follow a strict decorum of not addressing fellow legislators or businesses by individual names during floor debates on bills under consideration. During debates on bills being considered, there are also strict restrictions against improper language or personal attacks which maintain civility and decorum between the 100 legislators.
The Legislature has the authority, with a 2/3 vote of the Representatives, to discipline fellow legislators who violate House rules, depending on the severity of the violation. The Legislative body can simply ignore inappropriate behavior and tolerate disruptions or demand proper order. The most extreme action would be to expel a representative from their legislative seat and request the district he represents select another representative. Unfortunately, the Montana Legislature only has 90 days every two years to generate laws for the State. This session has witnessed over 1600 bills being introduced, which is an extensive workload, to move through the committee hearing and votes in both the Senate and the House. It is not fair to the elected representatives or the Montana voters they represent, to have to deal with political theater by radical groups attempting to intimidate members of the Legislature, which can evolve into dangers to government employees and elected officials if the situation is allowed to get out of control.
The elected leaders of the House considered the situation carefully and chose to present a moderate approach by simply closing the House public gallery for the rest of the session while provide visitors with closed circuit T.V. in a large committee room, which allows public observation of the House deliberations. Because of Rep. Zephyr refusing to apologize for several rule violations during this session, which escalated into the Monday riot, the leadership proposed to the entire House that Rep. Zephyr be excluded from the House floor for the remainder of the session but will allow him/her to observe and vote on behalf of his constituents remotely, and not remove him from his position. This includes banning him/her from the House Floor and the House Gallery. This proposal was presented to the entire House membership and was approved by a vote of 68 to 32 with the Democrats voting as a block against the sanctions. Other than losing two days of legislative work, we then continued the legislative process.
We passed HB 241, which restricts local governments from mandating homes must install solar panels—it is unfortunate that the State has to step in and protect citizens from their local officials. These should be individual choices on how a person wants to spend their money for personal living!
I co-sponsored House Resolution 29, which was passed this week, proposing an interim Study on Water Rights under the Taylor Grazing Act on Federal Land. Long standing policy has been that the agriculture users file for water rights. This was the basis for the long-drawn out Rancher Gage’s court battle with the BLM regarding his Grazing allotment in Nevada which he eventually won. There is a move by the Federal Government to file Water Rights to divert water from Agriculture to other uses.
Sen. Ed Butcher (Ret) is a Central Montana rancher/businessman and former college political history professor who served for 10 years in the Montana legislature and has been currently appointed to represent HD 29.
