{"id":20213,"date":"2017-11-14T18:19:06","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T01:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=20213"},"modified":"2017-11-14T18:19:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T01:19:22","slug":"special-session-expands-to-take-in-transgender-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/11\/special-session-expands-to-take-in-transgender-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Special session expands to take in transgender issue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lenz\"<\/a>

Rep. Dennis Lenz, R-Billings, made the motion to expand the special legislative session to include consideration of a rule involving gender status on birth certificates.<\/p><\/div>\n

HELENA\u2014On the first day of the special session Tuesday, lawmakers expanded the agenda to consider furloughs for state employees and to stop a proposed health department rule to make it easier for transgender Montanans to change their gender status on their birth certificates.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers also broadened their agenda to divert some money budgeted for a state institution in Boulder and to consider halting some state income tax credits.<\/p>\n

The four proposals, all sponsored by Republicans, needed approval of at least 76 of the 150 legislators, either by a floor vote or petition. All will lead to bills being introduced that will be subject to hearings in the special session.<\/p>\n

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock called the session to address a $227 million budget and revenue shortfall facing state government. Republicans, who control both the House and Senate, expanded the call to consider some of their ideas to address the shortfall.<\/p>\n

The most controversial expansion raised had to do with the proposed Department of Public Health and Human Services rule aimed at allowing transgender Montanans to change their gender on their birth certificates by going to the state agency instead of having to go to a district court.<\/p>\n

Rep. Dennis Lenz, R-Billings, made the motion to expand the session for that purpose to look at the proposed rule. He said the Legislature and public should have had a say in the purposed rule.<\/p>\n

Lenz disputed the department\u2019s claim that the rule would have no fiscal impact and said at a time \u201cwhen we are struggling to find money,\u201d the state shouldn\u2019t be increasing its costs.<\/p>\n

Over in the Senate, Sen. Al Olszewski, R-Kalispell, said it could cost millions of dollars to reprogram computers for various forms in state government if the rule is adopted.<\/p>\n

Democrats protested the inclusion of the proposal in the special session.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here, and we\u2019ve all heard we\u2019re here, to address a fiscal crisis, a revenue crisis, in this state,\u201d said Rep. Kim Abbott, D-Helena. \u201cThis has nothing to do either. It allows people to get a correct ID in the state that accurately reflects who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Rep. Moffie Funk, D-Helena, said she attended the rules hearing at the health department and five people testified for the rule, while one opposed it.\u00a0 She said the rule complies with federal law and is humane.<\/p>\n

There was no discussion about the proposal to authorize state employee furloughs, because it was done by petition. It calls on the Legislature to consider furloughing state workers and using the savings to help balance the budget and provide budget stability.<\/p>\n

Another proposal that received the needed 76 votes would divert more than $25 million in budget funds intended to go the Montana Development Center, an institute for developmentally disabled people in Boulder, and put the money toward the budget shortfall. The institution is to be closed by mid-2019<\/p>\n

Another proposal to expand the session\u2019s agenda to eliminate some income tax credits also wasn\u2019t debated because it was done by petition.<\/p>\n

Two other expansion attempts failed to muster the votes.\u00a0 One would have diverted money from the state coal severance fund and used it replenish the state\u2019s fund to pay for fighting wildland fires.\u00a0\u00a0 The other would have eliminated the state\u2019s six health-care clinics that serve state employees around the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HELENA\u2014On the first day of the special session Tuesday, lawmakers expanded the agenda to consider furloughs for state employees and to stop a proposed health department rule to make it easier for transgender Montanans to change their gender status on their birth certificates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":20214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[5674,1122,6442],"class_list":["post-20213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-dennis-lenz","tag-montana-legislature","tag-special-session","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20215,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20213\/revisions\/20215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}