Attending and speaking at
public hearings - what you need to know.
How to Read and Understand a Bill
MONTANA
SHOOTING SPORTS ASSOCIATION, Inc.
P.O. Box 4924, Missoula, Montana 59806
http://www.mtssa.org
Updated January 18, 2023
Legislative Process - Contacting Legislators - Tracking Bills
Montana is blessed (compared to many other states) because our
Legislature only meets every two years and for only 90 working
days. Because of that, things move quickly in the Montana
Legislature so observers and participants will need to be
informed about the process in order to participate in a timely
fashion. Here is that information.
LEGISLATIVE PROCESS - Every bill must be introduced in either the House or
the Senate. If the bill is first introduced in to the
House, it's called a House Bill and has an HB number, such as
HB100. If the bill is first introduced in to the Senate,
it's called a Senate Bill, and has an SB number, such as SB100.
Whichever chamber (House or Senate) a bill is introduced in, it
will first be assigned to a committee (there are 21 committees
in the House, and 23 in the Senate) for a public hearing and
deliberation by the committee. Anyone may testify in
support of or in opposition to a bill at the public hearing
before the committee. These committee hearings are
scheduled from one to ten days in advance, but usually bill
supporters or opponents only have three to four days advance
notice of a hearing. It is VERY IMPORTANT for you to go to
the trouble of attending and speaking at a public hearing for a
bill you wish to support or oppose.
To know when a public hearing on a bill of interest is is
necessary to visit the Legislature's Website, establish a Preference
List on the Website, or call the legislative information
number frequently to track where bills are in the process.
When the committee takes action on the bill, it can kill the
bill (table), it can amend and pass the bill, or it can simply
pass the bill as received. If a bill is passed by the
committee, it goes to Second Reading before the full body of the
House or Senate. On Second Reading, the merits of the bill
are debated and argued by the members of the legislature who
support or oppose the measure. A bill can be amended by
the full body on Second Reading. After debate, a vote is
taken. If a majority of the members vote for the bill, it
is passed on to Third Reading. Third Reading will occur on
a subsequent day, and is a vote only - no debate, no amendments.
Once a bill is passed by the body in which it originated (House
or Senate), it is transmitted to the other body, where it goes
through the same process all over again, including another public hearing before
the assigned committee. If the second body to review the
bill makes any amendments, it must go back to the first body to
see if the first body will vote to accept the amendments made by
the second body. If the first body does not accept the
amendments, the measure goes to a "conference committee," made
up of members of both bodies, to attempt to amend the bill into
a form acceptable to both bodies. Then, both bodies will
vote on whether or not to accept the compromise worked out by
the conference committee. Once both bodies have approved
the same form of the bill, it is sent to the Governor for his
signature (except resolutions and legislative referenda, which
don't go to the Governor).
TRACKING BILLS -
You can ask about a bill "status" by calling this number -
1-406-444-4800. This number answers 7 A.M. to 5
P.M. weekdays and 8 to Noon on Saturdays. Ask the
person who answers what the "status" is of the bill you want to
know about. Be prepared with the bill number, such as
"What is the status of HB90?" You may ask for the status of more
than one bill. The person on the phone will tell you of
the last significant action on the bill and will report whatever
is known about the next step, such as, "HB90 was passed by the
House Judiciary Committee and has been assigned to Second
Reading in the House.", or "SB58 has passed the Senate and is
scheduled for a hearing before the House Fish and Game Committee
on February 4th."
To track bills Online, go to START PAGE.
This is a very effective way to follow bills.
From this location, you can also do a keyword search for bills
of interest to you.
"PREFERENCE LIST" The legislative Website also has a very handy
option for you to establish what is called a "preference
list." Here, you may set up your own special list of bills
you wish to follow. Every time you log on, this list will
pop up and show what is happening with each bill you have placed
on your preference list. The preference list option also
has a very handy feature where you can set it to send you an
email when there is any significant action scheduled on a bill,
such as a public hearing before a committee scheduled.
Using this preference list function is highly recommended.
To begin this, go to PREFERENCE.
CONTACTING LEGISLATORS - The most important thing is - KEEP IT SHORT (I
recommend about two sentences - really). Legislators
simply don't have time to read long messages. Always
include your contact information - phone number, email address,
etc. - so they can get back to you if they have time.
Usually they won't have time and won't reply. Don't be
offended. They have a very heavy work load.
You may contact legislators several ways. You may call and
leave a message for them at 444-4800. You may send them a
letter at Capitol Station, Helena, Montana 59620. Be
advised that letters may take one to four days to get through
the state mail system once they get to Helena. You may
send letters by FAX to legislators at 444-4825 for the House,
and 444-4875 for the Senate. The inside address of a
letter or FAX should be "Representative Joe Blow", and the
greeting should be "Dear Representative Blow". See below
for sending email and Online electronic messages.
Phone messages (444-4800) should be VERY brief. Give your name, your phone
number, the name of the legislator whom the message is for, and
a short message such as "Please support HB90.", or "Please help
get HB90 out of House Judiciary Committee.", or "Please call
me." Legislators and the message takers are incredibly swamped
with work. Don't waste their time attempting long
messages. DO SEND MESSAGES - but be brief.
Email to legislators. The Legislature's Website does have email
addresses for some legislators. CAUTION. Some
legislators are good about checking their email regularly, but
many are not. Some may not even look at their email until
they go home for the mid-session break, far too late to do any
good. A roster of legislators is available at: ROSTER.
Some
legislators have email addresses which can be found from the
roster. Many legislators have personal email addresses,
and some of them actually check their personal email
occasionally. Because many don't check email regularly,
using their personal email addresses is not a very certain way
to get a message to them. However, if you want to try a
legislator's personal email address, many are listed under the
legislator's name on the legislative ROSTER.
Online electronic messages - good option. The Legislature's Website has a feature for
sending Online electronic messages to legislators. It is HERE. This
actually works pretty well. These messages are printed out
on paper by the Legislative Message Center and are delivered to
the legislators desk by pages. If you wish to send the
same message to all members of a committee, simply check the
circle for committees and then select the committee you want
from the drop-down menu. This message should be short,
such as "Please support HB 197."
Letters and fax letters should be less than one full page. Be sure the
letter contains return contact information, including your phone
number and address, as well as the name of the legislator.
If you can state your message in two or three short sentences,
it is much more likely to be read than if you use four long
paragraphs. With letters and faxes, use generous margins,
and leave lots of white space in the letter. If your
penmanship is not better than average, type the letter.
Be polite. In phone calls and letters, ALWAYS BE POLITE. If
you feel strongly about an issue, it is acceptable to say "I
feel very strongly about this!" But regardless of how
strongly you feel, DON'T EVER THREATEN a legislator, such as
"Vote the way we want or we'll get even at the polls next
election." NEVER use
bad language or call legislators derogatory names!
Treat legislators the way you would like to be treated!
GETTING COPIES OF BILLS - Anyone may obtain copies of any bills
introduced. They are available Online via: START PAGE As
bills get amended, the legislative Website shows revised copy to
reflect the amended changes. Paper bill copies can be
ordered through the toll-free information number listed above,
or you can call the Legislature's Data Distribution office
direct at 444-3926. They will include an invoice with the
bills mailed, for the cost of copying and postage. Very
few bills cost as much as $1.00. If they are short bills,
you can often get several bills and postage for less than
$2.00. The best access to bills
is Online via the bill tracking site at:
START PAGE
READING A BILL – It's not that hard to understand what a bill does IF
you know about three fundamentals. If a bill contains a “NEW
SECTION”, that is new language proposed to be added to state
law, the Montana Codes Annotated, abbreviated as M.C.A. If a
bill section begins with a number, such as 45-8-328, that means
this section of the bill is AMENDING EXISTING state law. In that
amending section. Language that uses a strikethrough is
language proposed to be DELETED from existing state law, and
language that is underlined is proposed to be ADDED to existing state law.
TIMES FOR CONTACTING LEGISLATORS
- The best time to send a phone message, electronic
message, letter, or fax to a legislator is when some action is
pending. Any time you check bill status and a committee
has had a hearing on a measure but has not acted on the bill, or
when a hearing is scheduled, is a very good time to send
messages asking committee members to support the bill. Any
time a measure is up for Second Reading or Third Reading is a
good time to send messages and letters urging support.
WHO TO CONTACT -
You can find out the names of your Representative and Senator
from your County Election Office. Call the county
courthouse, ask for the election office, tell them where you
live, and ask who your Representative and Senator are (you will
have one of each). If you live in one of Montana's larger
communities, such as Great Falls, or any community that has more
than one legislative seat, there is nothing wrong with sending
messages to any or all legislators who come from your
community. There is more information, including lists of
committee members for House and Senate, available
from: HOUSE
- SENATE.
FREE LEGISLATIVE DIRECTORIES - CenturyLink publishes a great legislative directory
that contains the names and addresses of all legislators, lists
of all the committees and which legislators serve on which
committees, and MUCH MORE valuable information. The rural
electric co-ops also publish a legislative directory.
Every citizen should have a copy of these great
directories. Call the legislative information phone at
444-4800 and ask them to send you one or both. They are
FREE!
FURTHER INFORMATION - Any MSSA member with questions about how to get
involved in the legislative process may call MSSA President Gary
Marbut at 406dash549dash1252 or may send email to mssa "AT" mtssa.org.
MSSA has a Web site: http://www.mtssa.org
or find us on Facebook.
DO GET INVOLVED. YOUR LEGISLATURE IS PASSING LAWS THAT
WILL AFFECT YOU, YOUR NEIGHBORS, YOUR CHILDREN AND
GRANDCHILDREN.
"YOU MAY IGNORE
POLITICS, BUT POLITICS WON'T IGNORE YOU" - Unknown
If you wish to receive email alerts as
legislative circumstances evolve, send us an email and ask to be
included on the legislative information email list.