Senate File 16, a change to industrial-siting notification requirements, was amended and reported favorably out of the Committee of the Whole on Jan. 15, 2025.

The bill inserts "tribal government" language into the industrial-siting notification statute so that tribal governments for the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes would be on the mailing list for siting requests in counties adjacent to the reservations. Supporters said the change simply adds tribes to the mailing list for adjacent-county projects and does not alter industrial-siting funding distributions.

A Committee of the Whole amendment — described in the transcript as inserting the word "effective" into a timing clause — was offered, moved and adopted. Senator Cooper, explaining the amendment, described it as a brief technical insertion to the bill's effective-date language.

Senator Bonar raised a question about whether the bill's notification standard differs from other forms of government notice (for example, notifying entities only if they are "primarily affected"). Senator Cooper and other proponents responded that the change places tribal governments on the notice mailing list for adjacent counties and does not change the statutory distribution of industrial-siting monies.

The Committee of the Whole adopted the motion that it rise and report Senate File 16 as amended with a favorable recommendation by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript. The bill will return to the Senate for additional consideration.