What started as a modest $100,000 measure to bolster trade relations between Montana and Ireland has transformed into a multi-million-dollar mammoth landing place for a slew of ideas, including some that didn’t have the support to survive on their own at the Montana Legislature.
As House Bill 863, sponsored by Conrad Republican Rep. Llew Jones, snaked through the Legislature, it picked up all kinds of bells and whistles — a few hundred thousand dollars for historic preservation, funds for recruitment that will flow through the governor’s office and much more.
Once a six-page proposal, HB 863, which cleared its final legislative vote on the last day of the 2025 session Wednesday, became a twenty-pager that touches many corners of Montana law. In some Capitol circles, it’s earned the nickname the “Irish Twin,” a tribute to its origin and newfound resemblance to the state's primary budget bill.
Some of what’s in HB 863 was voted down by lawmakers during the session and was brought back through this receptacle. Other parts are designed to fix “mistakes” made earlier in the session, said Jones, the chief engineer of the state’s budget and chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
“It’s an empty vessel to solve the problems at the end of the session,” Jones said. “There were just pieces that fell off the plate that we needed to reach out and pick back up.”
Though this technique is tried-and-true in the twilight of a session, HB 863 did not split lawmakers along party lines; it incited ire and gained support from both sides of the aisle. Critics say it’s emblematic of savvy legislators exploiting loopholes in the bill-making process to push through priorities and a less transparent way to balloon an already-hefty state budget.
Missoula Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr said she felt like the line items were “really good policy,” but could not support it.
“I'm really concerned here about the way the process was done. I think it does a great disservice to the people of Montana,” Zephyr said. “I can tell it's probably time to sine die when I find myself nodding along with the folks on the far right. … It’s probably time to go home back to Missoula and recharge.”
‘Nothing is dead until sine die’
At the Montana Legislature, there’s a saying that nothing is dead until sine die (the procedural term for final adjournment). That's because items from bills that were voted down can be worked into others that are still alive — exactly as happened with HB 863.
Alarmed by what they described as a lack of public input, some legislators who signed on as cosponsors in the bill’s early days have withdrawn their support.
Rep. Bill Mercer, a Billings Republican, said he was “really sorry” he put his name on the bill. He lamented how the largest changes to the bill were made on the Senate floor, not in a place where there was time to air out ideas or hear from the public.
Other Republicans called the process “disgusting” and “disturbing.”
Supporters argued the items that had been in other bills already had public hearings, and that it’s standard for public scrutiny to wane later in the session when committees meet less frequently.
Senate Finance and Claims Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, conceded that shell bills are a common tool, but took issue with how late changes were added, meaning legislators knew little about the behemoth they chose to pass.
“We have no idea what we’re passing,” he said. “It’s embarrassing.”
Line items
Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s budget office was a major winner in HB 863.
It received $350,000 in general fund dollars to study executive agency functions, including how state-owned health care facilities operate, and nearly $26 million from a variety of funding sources to develop a recruitment and retention contingency fund to help with employee turnover at government agencies.
Those in favor of the proposal, including Rep. Jonathan Karlen, D-Missoula, say they see the forest for the trees.
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“There’s nothing in the bill I find objectionable,” he said, pointing to the need for more money to address employee turnover. “I think it’s insane rhetoric around this bill.”
That money has been subject of back-and-forths between the executive and the Legislature throughout the session, and was ultimately cut from the budget before being weaved back into law through HB 863.
Critics described the bill as a “black box” and “shiny thing,” whereas supporters characterized it as “responsible” and “good business practice.”
Lawmakers had also previously decided there wasn’t room in House Bill 2, the state’s main budget bill, for a $7.4 million proposal to fund community-based mental health evaluations ordered by the courts. They found a place for it in HB 863.
Rep. Fiona Nave, R-Columbus called it “outrageous” that the bill’s architects wanted to use the money for these purposes “instead of taking care of citizens of Montana.”
HB 863 contains smaller projects, too, often put there with little explanation: tourist bed tax money to renovate the Miles City Train Depot; half-a-million dollars for historic commission projects at Helena’s Reeder’s Alley and Virginia City’s Grace Methodist Church; and a cost-of-living study.
The money for the recruitment, retention and cost of living study spurred AFL-CIO and its affiliate the Montana Federation for Public Employees to lobby multiple lawmakers to back the proposal.
The drama
The heavy hand and far-reaching influence of Jones (the majority leader called him a “powerhouse” and said Wednesday “we’re going to be talking about Rep. Jones for 20-30 years from now”) was ever-present in discussions about HB 863.
In the Senate, floor debates devolved into what has become well-trod commentary on the rifts between two major factions in the chamber — 23 hardline Republicans and the remaining 27 senators, 18 Democrats and nine GOP allies.
There was particular focus on the inability of Sen. Josh Kassmier, a Republican from Fort Benton and ringleader of “The Nine,” to explain his hefty changes to the bill.
Kassmier has worked as Jones’ counterpart in the Senate for HB 863, which passed through the chamber 28-21 last week.
Over in the House, opponents put up more of a fight. It took multiple floor votes to get HB 863 across the finish line, though Jones never publicly broke a sweat.
One Republican lawmaker encouraged her colleagues not to vote for the bill just because Jones told them it was a good proposal.
The pleas weren’t enough to sway a majority of the body to vote against the bill — and, by extension, Jones.
HB 863 passed the House 55-45 on Wednesday and now heads to Gianforte for his approval.
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