Montana State Legislature is Back in Session
Citizen Participation in Montana Legislature
Legislative website: https://leg.mt.gov
Phone message: in support or opposition to a bill (message will be delivered to legislator) dial (406) 444-4800.
Web Message: In the center of the home page is a tab (Send a Web Message to a Legislator or Committee). Required fields to complete include first & last name, address, city, zip, email. You can send a message to a Legislator OR to a committee. Select the “For” or “Against” button. Your message is limited to 1250 characters.
Testify Remotely/Upload Your Testimony: Testimony and supporting documentation MUST be submitted by NOON the day before the hearing begins. In the center of the home page is a tab (Request to Testify Remotely/Upload Your Testimony)
Searches: Legislators, Bills, Committee Hearings, House & Senate Floor Agendas
On the left side of the Home Page: There are four handy options you can search by.
Bill Search: Clicking on this tab will lead you to searching by bill (House or Senate with a drop down arrow to make your choices & enter the bill number) OR search a Legislator (with a drop down arrow to make your choices showing which bills the Legislator is carrying or has requested a bill be drafted, which committee & date of hearing) OR search by Subject (with a drop down bar from A-Z; examples include ballot issues; elections) OR search by Primary Sponsor (which is the Legislator that is carrying a specific bill). Once you’ve filled in the tabs click on Find. From there you can track the bill by dates of hearings, which committee the bill is in, when the bill is on the floor, & many more things. Click Reset to start a new search.
Legislator Search: Click on Legislator Roster in the center of the Legislator Lookup page. Click on the name of the Legislator. Scrolling down the page you can click on “Sponsored Bills”, “Associated Bills”, “Committee Assignments”, and “Committee Hearings” to find the “what, where, and when” of the Legislator.
Session Information: Click on View Session Page. On the center of the page you will find the House Agenda and the Senate Agenda. These tabs will take you to the floor agendas of each chamber each day.
Budget & Revenue information: The Legislative Fiscal Division provides non-partisan budget and data analysis to the Montana Legislature so all lawmakers have objective, accurate and relevant information to make state financial decisions.
It's early in the process, so remember, all bills will start in the chamber of the Legislator.
House bills start in the House, Senate bills start in the Senate.
In each chamber there are steps the bills go through when it is successful:
heard in committee
heard on the floor of the chamber aka 2nd reading
3rd reading (final vote) of the chamber
If the bill passes these steps in goes over to the other Chamber - House bills go to the Senate & Senate bills go to the House.
The 3 steps described above are repeated in the other chamber.
(We) bring this up because to really be a part of the process you need to follow the bill all of the way through the process, & if you feel strongly, submit your testimony or message at every step.
Final step for bill to become a law is Governor action: Sign, amend, veto …