Lawmakers on Thursday heard three bills that would bolster the state's response to the missing and murdered Indigenous persons crisis, with backing from the new Montana Department of Justice administration. Rep. Sharon Stewart-Peregoy, D-Crow Agency, presented the legislative package to the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning. House Bill 98 would extend the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Task Force at the Montana Department of Justice, a House version of the same proposal Sen. Jason Small, R-Busby, pitched to a Senate committee a week earlier, but with an extension of the program's current grant funding mechanism. In Montana, Native Americans make up roughly 7% of the state population but account for roughly 26% of the missing persons cases. Native Americans are four times as likely to go missing than non-Natives. Of those Natives who were reported missing between 2017 and 2019, nearly 80% are teenagers younger than 18 years old. Reported numbers are presumably lower than the number of people actually missing, Stewart-Peregoy said.