Local Senator Discusses Legislative Session Plans

Sen. Frank Smith, D-Poplar, doesn’t believe that meeting through video conferencing is the best route to take once the Montana Legislature goes into session in January.

“I hope we don’t do the Legislature through Zoom because you can’t watch the people testify,” Smith said. “You just don’t get the feeling of the testifiers.”

Last week, the Joint House and Senate Rules Committee discussed a new rule which would permit House and Senate members to vote remotely because of social distancing concerns.

Smith, currently a member of the Senate, is running unopposed for the House District 31 seat.

He noted that the public has a right to testify regarding legislation during the session.

“The public has to get in to testify. That’s the law,” Smith said. “I definitely don’t like Zoom for meetings. You just don’t the feeling that you get when you’re looking straight at the person.”

Another challenge is that not everybody has highspeed internet access. Smith mentioned areas south of Miles City along with other rural places. “It’s hard to get people to testify anyway.”

Challenges include a lack of room to spread out legislators during meetings. He said the Senate’s committee meetings already have packed rooms.

Smith admits that he doesn’t have a perfect solution for the situation. “There’s a lot of questions about what a person should do,” the Democrat said. “I think it can be done. They said you couldn’t do the schools, but they have done it.”

He feels it’s important for the many new legislators to actually be in Helena. There’s also benefits in talking with fellow legislators in a face-toface fashion.

Republicans are planning to meet again this week to decide if they wish to send a ballot to all legislators regarding the proposal.

A different proposal would allow the majority leaders of the House and Senate to break ties in interim committees.

“It’s like this for a reason,” Smith said of the current system.