A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Republicans hold a 59–41 majority in Montana’s House of Representatives — but the Republican caucus is not monolithic. On some issues, enough Republicans can, and will, join with Democrats to form a very narrow majority. That split within the Republican caucus, and the frustration and fury it generates among the 45–50 tea partiers who dominate the caucus, is the key to understanding why House Speaker (elect) Austin Knudsen (R-Culbertson), majority leader Keith Regier (R-Kalispell) and the Republican leadership are supporting new House rule that would make it virtually impossible to blast a bill out of the appropriations committee without support from the GOP’s tea party faction.
Under current House rules, a bill reported out of a committee can be re-referred by the speaker to the appropriations committee. Overriding the speaker’s decision requires 51 votes (Woods). Knudsen and colleagues want the override threshold raised to 60 votes. Last month, the rules committee approved the change, which must be approved by the full House next week.
This is aimed squarely at the self-named Responsible Republicans caucus that believes in government enough that it will form a governing coalition with Democrats. It is likely that on some bills, 10 Republicans would join with the 41 Democrats to override a re-referral, but no more likely than the cow’s jumping over the Moon that at least 19 Republicans would join with Democrats to override a Republican speaker.
If the rule is adopted by the House, it will greatly weaken Governor Bullock’s ability to form a governing coalition with the Responsible Republicans, as he did in the 2013.
Knudsen told Lee reporter Mike Dennison that:
…the change — yet to be approved — is simply a step to give the majority more control over the budgeting process.
Translation: the rule will give the Republican caucus more control over the budgeting process, because it will effectively keep the Responsible Republicans from joining with Democrats to thwart the policy decisions made within the Republican caucus. The majority Knudsen’s talking about is the majority of the Republican caucus, not the majority of the Montana House of Representatives.
Knudsen’s play is clever, audacious, and deeply hostile to the principle of majority rule that is the foundation of democratic government. If he and his associates get away with it — and I fear they might — they will not only give the speaker far too much power, they will provide a 41-member minority with a veto. That’s change, but not progress.