The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services' budget finally won support in the House, where members voted 52-48 for the measure. It is likely to clear the House on a final vote Monday, and move to the Senate.
All 50 Republicans, the House's lone Constitution Party member and one Democrat - who later said he pushed the wrong button accidentally - voted for the budget.
The legislation advanced Saturday puts $2.8 billion into DPHHS's budget over the next two years, a figure that consists of both state and federal support. The amount is roughly the level with which the department now functions, but the new sum reflects a small increase to account for inflation and expenses such as the rising cost of medical equipment. The DPHHS budgets from a legislative subcommittee and Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer were for about $3.1 billion.
The bill removes about $2.3 million in federal money for family planning, a move Republican leaders in the Legislature said was necessary for the bill to draw Jore's support and move out the House, to the Senate.
''We're done,'' said House Majority Leader Michael Lange, R-Billings. ''The people of Montana are tired of hearing about it. They want it done.''
Democrats, who support Schweitzer's single state budget bill over the eight separate budget bills that were prepared by Republicans for various units of state government, such as DPHHS, again closed ranks and voted against the measure Saturday. They said the people who rely on DPHHS will be hurt when there is an inevitable lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Republicans' separate budget bills.
''That's the one thing for sure that's going to happen,'' said Rep. Dave Gallik, D-Helena.
But Rep. John Sinrud, R-Bozeman, who as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has played a large role in crafting the Republican budget bills, told Democrats to ''get over the rhetoric and lets move on.''
Jore said the cuts to the federal dollars for family planning played a large part in his decision to support the bill, even though it still contained federal dollars for social services, which he opposes.
''I'm not going to kid you, it was not an easy vote,'' Jore said after the floor session.
All 49 Democrats had voted dozens of times against each of the eight budget bills and their various amendments over the last few weeks. But Rep. Robin Hamilton, D-Missoula, broke the streak Saturday by voting with the Republicans.
He later said he was so distracted watching by how Jore and fiscally conservative Republicans were voting that he pushed the wrong button at this desk.
Hamilton said he felt like he was ''wearing a dunce cap'' afterward and will vote against the measure during its final House action Monday.
In the Senate, seven other budget bills are being considered in committee.
Senate President Mike Cooney called the House's endorsement of the DPHHS budget ''too little too late,'' and said the Democrat-controlled Senate must do a lot of work to produce an acceptable state budget.
The bill is House bill 808.
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