House Bill 495, presented as a governor’s request measure, would repeal Montana’s Federal Mandates Act (statutory citation referenced at the hearing as 2‑1‑402), a requirement that state agencies report on federal mandates and their costs to the governor and Legislature.

Kevin Northey, policy adviser to the governor, told the Judiciary Committee the report consumes “hundreds of hours of staff time” and yields little actionable result. “Compiling these reports consumes hundreds of hours of staff time for executive branch agencies,” he said, adding that many agencies lack in‑house economics capacity to estimate costs accurately and that prior reports produced little legislative follow‑up.

Department directors supporting repeal said the administration has pursued other tools — rule comments and litigation — to push back on federal overreach and that the biennial report has not driven effective outcomes. Nancy Hall from the governor’s budget office, who prepares the report, told committee members the process ties into the budget cycle each spring and that agencies deliver material used in May and for the September report to the Legislature.

Committee members asked whether the declaration language — which asserts state authority to scrutinize federal action — should remain even if reporting is repealed. Sponsor representatives suggested they could consult with the lieutenant governor’s office about preserving the legislative declaration while eliminating the reporting burden. No final vote was taken on the bill during the hearing.

Why it matters: Repealing the statutory reporting requirement would reduce agency administrative work but would remove a formal, legislatively mandated compilation of federal-mandate impacts that some committee members said could be useful for oversight.