The 2025 Session began in chaos. Nine Republican senators joined with the Democrat caucus to reject the Senate rules and instead adopt a new set of rules written by the minority.

They also changed a number of committee assignments, overriding the work of the Committee on Committees. The Senate spent most of the week attempting to negotiate their way back and failed. They plan to begin holding hearings this week.

Although the House began organizing their committees, there were no bills of significant interest to NFIB heard.

NFIB already has a number of bills that we are watching on behalf of our members.

Environmental Regulations
Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has a process in place to assist small businesses that must comply with the Clean Air Act. Rep. Julie Darling is bringing a bill to make that process a bit more user friendly and to assign a staff person at DEQ to assist small business directly, rather than the current advisory council. This bill, HB 64, will be heard on Wednesday (January 15) in House Natural Resources Committee at 3 p.m.

Unemployment Benefits
Rep. Seekins-Crowe has introduced House Bill 131 to reduce the maximum number of weeks a person can collect unemployment from 24 to 20. NFIB will be supporting this bill along with another draft that will address the formula to ensure that the cost savings are passed on in the rates charged to Montana businesses. It will be heard Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. in House Business and Labor Committee.

Workers’ Compensation Rates
There are plenty of bills that could affect your Worker’s Compensation rates. A few want to add benefits and a number of them are looking to help reduce your rates. NFIB will be meeting with other employer groups and the State Fund next week to discuss how each of these bills may affect rates of small businesses. We will work to pass those that will improve your rates and attempt to defeat any proposals that would increase your rates.

Retail Theft/Bad Checks
Sen. Barry Usher is bringing Senate Bill 19 to increase the penalties for theft and bad checks in an attempt to cut down on the amount of retail theft many are experiencing. NFIB supported this effort last session, but it did not make it through the process in 2023. The bill has been referred to Senate Judiciary committee but no hearing date is scheduled.

Paid Sick Leave
We are currently watching a proposal that would require all businesses with over 10 employees to offer paid sick leave. This has not yet been introduced as a bill. NFIB has opposed this proposal as unnecessary government regulation of small business.

Minimum Wage
We are also tracking a proposal that would increase the state minimum wage to $12.06 an hour and continue the COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) going forward. NFIB will continue to oppose this.

Tort Reform
NFIB is tracking a tort reform proposal to reduce the statute of limitations for work done on improvements to real property from 8 and 10 years, to 6 years.

The website will be updated weekly with the latest information from Helena affecting Montana’s main street businesses.

Prior Weekly Reports

January 6—Montana Legislature Starts its 2025 Session