Libby legislators face off in Helena

Libby’s two legislators went head to head during the debate over ratification of the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes Water Compact. Sen. Chas Vincent sponsored the legislation, with Rep. Jerry Bennett chairing the House Judiciary Committee that took a number of steps to kill it Monday.

“I am very disappointed in Jerry’s actions today. I believe he will be, too, when the consequences of his decision are felt by the citizens of Lincoln County,” Vincent said.

The water compact has a long history in the Montana State Legislature. It has been under negotiation for more than 10 years, with the Legislature rejecting a previous version in the 2013 general session.

Vincent helped lead the charge to defeat the compact in 2013, but he found himself driving the revised version this year.

During the two-year interim, Vincent chaired the Legislature’s Water Policy Interim Committee, which took upon itself the task of studying the compact and suggesting several changes. The changes requested by the committee, Vincent said, were all accepted by the tribes and the United States government, the other parties in the negotiation.

“The reason that I dove into the deep end of the policy pool, that I spent over 500, 600, I don’t  even know. I spent a lot of time of my life taking these arguments to ground, and I had a lot of them, was because I really, really, really wanted to beat this thing,” Vincent said in his closing Saturday. “But I can’t. I couldn’t, because this agreement is good. It’s fair. It’s going to protect existing and future uses. That’s why I sponsored it. It was a leadership moment for me. I took on the job of trying to derail something and found out I had to conduct it when I got to the end because that is what I had to do.”

The bill was considered Monday by the House Judiciary Committee following more than 10 hours of testimony in a rare Saturday hearing at the Montana State Capitol. During the committee meeting Monday, 10 amendments to the agreement were introduced and debated by the committee members. Passage of any of the amendments would mean the end of the bill, as it is the ratification of a three-party agreement, so amendments would send the entire agreement back to the other parties for further consideration.

“The legislature cannot bind two other negotiating parties by unilaterally amending the compact. The legislature knew that the negotiated settlements were going to be a straight up or down vote, which is why they put legislators on the commission to be a part of the negotiations. We have ratified 17 other compacts over the years since, and the 18th must be ratified or rejected under the same framework,” Vincent said.

Rep. Bennett had been notoriously silent regarding his stance on the legislation, even through Saturday’s marathon hearing. Numerous phone messages left for Rep. Bennett went unreturned and he doesn’t list an email address on his legislative profile, nor is one available from the legislative information desk.

Bennett’s actions Monday, however, demonstrated exactly where he stood on the controversial legislation.

In votes on each of the 10 amendments, Bennett was the 21st and deciding vote. The committee is comprised of 12 Republicans and 9 Democrats, but Republican Rep. G Bruce Meyers jumped across the aisle in support of the compact.

In each case, Bennett cast the eleventh vote to break the tie and approve the amendment.

Even after the bill was amended 10 times, Rep. Keith Regier, who sponsored most of the amendments arguing they were his attempt to improve the legislation, moved for the committee to send an adverse report to the House floor, recommending the bill receive no further consideration.

Bennett also voted in favor of the adverse report.

The bill has been referred to the House Rules Committee for a ruling as the beginning of what is known as the “silver bullet” process. House rules were modified earlier in this session in order to allow the leadership of both parties the opportunity to pull six bills out of committee in spite of an adverse report. Normal rules require a 3/5 supermajority vote in order to overcome the adverse report, but under the modified rules, the silver bullet requires only a simple majority to bring the legislation to the floor.

Vincent said using the silver bullet not only brings the bill to the floor over the committee’s objections, but also brings it to the floor in its original form, without the committee’s amendments.

Vincent, while obviously frustrated by the Judiciary Committee’s actions Monday morning, said he remains hopeful the Legislature will pass the bill.

The House Rules Committee will hear the water compact bill at 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 14.