Legislature handles record number of ‘study’ bills

Clayton Murphy

HELENA (UM Community News Service) — In two years, the next Montana Legislature will reconvene in Helena. But before then, the 2025 legislature has asked for studies on everything from farmers’ markets to changing the date of primary elections. In total, lawmakers have proposed 80 different study bills in 2025. That’s 42% more than the 10-session average of about 56.

In the waning days of the session, both the House and Senate agendas have been jam-packed with study bills. Sen. Dennis Lenz, R-Billings, said that could be because these bills serve as tools to help pass future versions of bills that died this session. But the motivation, and often staff capacity, to get those bills to committees doesn’t usually come until late into the session.

“Study bills are kind of an odd duck because they really, honestly, physically can't come earlier in the session because there's all these important bills that drafters and staff are working on,” Lenz said.

He said this session’s high volume could also be attributed to last year’s votes on study bills — just seven of the 52 total proposed passed.

Responding to another Senator’s critique of the volume of study bills late in the session, Sen. Andrea Olsen, D-Missoula, said she supported the trend.

 ”I actually thought that was one of the most exciting changes we saw this session, that people really want to study real problems and maybe come up with really significant solutions for next session,” Olsen said.

Seven of this session’s study bills have fully passed and 60 are still awaiting a final verdict. Once the session ends, legislators will decide which studies are priorities, and those will be given to different interim committees to carry out.