HELENA —– Between 2011-2017, at least three dozen Montana lawmakers are reported to have carried 108 “model” bills in the state Capitol, legislation crafted by industry groups and think tanks that have been copied and used in some states to further particular agendas, according to a two-year investigation by USA TODAY and the Arizona Republic.

Top topics included 14 bills regarding School Choice, nine bills for insurance regulations and nine bills for health insurance.

The investigation was printed in the Great Falls Tribune, which, like USA Today and the Republic, is part of the Gannett Co. Inc. It reports on the degree to which special interests have infiltrated state legislatures nationwide using model bills.



These bills are hawked by both Republicans and Democrats. However, the study showed more model bills were introduced by Republicans than Democrats in Montana.

One Montana lawmaker said she saw the bills as being driven by ideology rather than corporations and one Treasure State-based political science professor said model bills are not new and have been used in the United States for more than 100 years.

USA Today said its investigation examined nearly 1 million bills in all 50 states and Congress using a computer algorithm developed to find similarities in language. The series revealed at least 10,000 bills found to be nearly entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide from 2011-2017, with more than 2,100 becoming law.

It also found that models often have deceptive titles and descriptions to disguise their true intent; special interests sometimes create the illusion of expert endorsements or grassroots support; industry groups have had extraordinary success pushing copycat bills that benefit themselves and some of bills have been used to override the will of local voters and their elected leaders.

Looking at some other states, Mississippi had 1,053 bills in that same time period, 774 in Illinois and 652 in Arizona. Closer to home, there were 166 so-called model bills in Idaho, 84 in North Dakota, 78 in South Dakota and 74 in Wyoming, according to the study. On the low side, Alaska had 34 bills.

In Montana from 2011-2017, 18 of those bills introduced came from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), 12 were from the Council of State Governments and seven were from the National Council of Insurance Legislators, NCOIL, the study found.

This legislative session, 1,266 bills have been introduced (whittled down from a total of 3,311). There were 1,188 introduced in 2017, 1,187 in 2015, 1,201 in 2013 and 1,179 in 2011, according to the legislative website.

ALEC is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives. Some have referred to it as a model bill factory. The Council of State Governments states is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization in the United States, and the National Council of Insurance Legislators states on its website it is made up of legislators and writes model Laws in insurance.

The Council of State Governments helped the state of Montana with changes to its criminal justice system which were signed into law in 2017.The state reviewed prison overcrowding, high recidivism, and the impact of substance on Montana's criminal justice system, according to a July 19, 2017, news release from the governor's office.

Some of the bills on the computer algorithm do not state who wrote or supported them, only that they are similarly worded to legislation introduced in other states.

Those now serving in the Legislature on the list of carrying bills that had “similar language” introduced in other states include current GOP Reps. Nancy Ballance, Tom Burnett, Ed Buttrey, Frank Garner, Cary Smith and Daniel Zolnikov.

Current Democratic representatives who have also carried model bills as of 2017, according to USA Today, are Zach Brown, Mary Caferro and Moffie Funk.

Current GOP senators who have carried model bills as of 2017, are: Keith Regier, Fred Thomas, Gordon Vance, Roger Webb, Jeffrey Welborn and Gene Vukovich.

Examples of some of those bills included House Bill 37, introduced in 2017, which would revise securities and insurance laws for the state auditor and HB 148, also in 2017, which would revise privacy laws related to electronic communications.

There was House Joint Resolution 6 in 2015, which called on Montana to reduce its dependence on federal funds; HB 596, to establish charter schools; HB 428 to regulate ride-sharing services in Montana and SB 54 to require workers' compensation for volunteer firefighters.

The algorithm did not provide the name of the lawmakers who introduced the bills in the 2011 session. Information was not available for Montana’s 2019 legislative session, which is still in progress.

Ballance said a 2017 bill the USA Today study said she carried and alleged to be drafted by ALEC was not. She said she had a bill dealing with the same issue as another lawmaker and his bill, which was based on the ALEC bill, was withdrawn.

She said model bills are rarely proposed or passed without some changes. She said during the 2015 session that such bills rarely got a fair chance on the floor of the Legislature, adding that ALEC bills were labeled by some as “wacko.”

“One thing that I saw was that very few of the ALEC bills were put on the table as is,” Ballance said. “They were customized. I didn’t see very many come through unchanged.”

Rep. Tom Burnett, R-Bozeman, said model bills can be helpful.

“Both sides of the spectrum provide that kind of intellectual firepower and get things percolating,” he said. “They are probably a value to both sides of the argument.”

Ballance said she did not see anything in the ALEC bills driven by major corporations. She remembers them as being driven by major ideology.

She said some groups put bills together or offer frameworks of what they want.

“I don’t see it as inherently good or bad,” she said. “It’s a resource for ideas, for things that provoke thought, and if it turns into action then it can be a bit of a shortcut.”

She said some of the groups have put out legislation that can be very helpful, as “long as you just don’t take it and run with it without understanding it.”

The lawmakers said having it run in other states brings historical value and gives a chance to look at its effectiveness.

Jeremy Johnson, an associate professor of political science at Carroll College, said model bills are not new or inherently evil.

“They’re not necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “Interest groups have been putting forth model bills to state legislatures for over a century.

“There was a model bill for state health insurance put forward by the American Association for Labor Legislation in the period between 1915-1920,” Johnson said. “The bills can often be more expertly drafted than just drafted in an individual state.”

He said what someone thinks about a model bill also depends on the purpose of the legislation and the interest group pushing it.

“In recent years, ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group supporting industry and business, has been particularly controversial for the model legislative bills they are promoting in state Legislatures nationwide,” Johnson said.

Ballance said it was not important for her for bill sponsors to disclose where they got their proposed laws from.

“I don’t particularly care,” she said. “I think each piece of legislation kind of stands on its own, and you look at it on its merits. I don’t particularly care where it came from.”

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Veteran journalist Phil Drake is our eye on the state capitol. For tips, suggestions or comment, he can be reached at 406-231-9021 or pdrake@greatfallstribune.com. To support his work go here.