After a round of legislative maneuvering on Tuesday, the state Senate will vote today on the bill to ratify the water compact involving the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Senate Bill 262 was tabled Tuesday morning by the Senate Finance and Claims Committee, but a blast motion by the full Senate to bring it to the floor passed 33-17.

The Senate will take up the compact bill after 3 p.m. today.

The compact is a negotiated settlement among the tribes, the state and the federal government to quantify the tribes’ water rights in Northwest Montana. With a $55 million contribution from the state as part of the deal, it is an attempt to avoid thousands of claims the tribes plan to file across the state in a water adjudication court.

Because it is a settlement among the three parties, proponents have warned that any amendments to the compact bill will effectively kill it, given the lack of interest in restarting 10 years of negotiations that concluded last December.

The bill could have been headed for that fate in the finance committee after state Sen. Janna Taylor, R-Dayton, proposed two amendments to increase transparency for the expected $8 million appropriation.

The $8 million is the first installment of the $55 million. The remaining $47 million would have to be appropriated by a future Legislature once the federal and tribal governments approve the compact. 

Taylor said it was not her intention to kill the compact.

“Fifty-five million dollars is a lot of money, and this Legislature is very concerned with transparency,” she said.

Called back to the hearing from his seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, bill sponsor Chas Vincent, R-Libby, had a different take.

“This is nothing but an attempt to amend the bill, to kill the bill,” he said, after the first amendment passed 14-6. “And that’s your guys’ policy decision as well. I just want you to know that’s what’s happening.”

He said the amendments could easily be attached to separate appropriations legislation in the House.

“If that was my intention, I would have brought these amendments on the floor, which would have been much worse and probably would have killed the bill,” Taylor responded. “I did not think of these weeks ago, and I just want to make that clear.”

Legislative attorney Julie Johnson concurred that because the amendments were reporting requirements related to funding, they could instead be approved as part of the House-based appropriation bill.

Taylor passed out five amendments she planned to put up for a vote, ultimately holding off on three of them that she said were redundant.

Sen. Mike Philips, D-Bozeman, asked Taylor if she had discussed the proposals ahead of time with Vincent. Taylor responded that she hadn’t, adding she had just received the amendments and was learning about them along with everyone else.

Sen. Rick Ripley, R-Wolf Creek, said he was opposed to the compact but thought the amendments were inappropriate for the finance committee.

“I don’t see a problem with these amendments that are asking for transparency, … I don’t support the policy, and I won’t be voting for the bill on the floor, but I don’t think this is the place to be putting amendments on,” he said.

Sen. Bradley Hamlett, D-Cascade, a co-sponsor on the bill and member of the interim committee that studied the compact in 2014, initially said he didn’t see a problem with the first amendment, but noted Vincent’s absence during the first vote.

“I don’t see it as a deal breaker. It deals with how the Legislature and accounting and all that. It doesn’t change the intent of the compact as I understand it.”

Taylor offered one more amendment, requiring an audit of the compact funds. It also passed 10-9.

Speaking before the committee voted on whether to pass the bill as amended, Vincent then changed tactics.

“I would recommend that everybody that is in favor of ratifying this compact this session, … vote against the bill, so it can remain in this committee, and then I will remove it by a blast motion on the floor and take the amendments off of it.”

The motion to table the bill passed 17-2.

In his blast motion on the Senate floor, Vincent said he was not opposed to the transparency measures in the amendments and would be willing to work with Taylor to insert them into the appropriations language.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com