Montana Legislature	2011 Session
	Previous Versions of Bills

HOW TO FIND PREVIOUS VERSIONS: Below are links to directories of all versions of bills from this session within a given numerical range. For example, the link HB0001 - HB0099 will take you to a directory list of all versions of all bills from HB 1 through HB 99.

In each directory, each bill is denoted by a filename that includes its version number. For example, HB0001_1.pdf links to the original, or introduced, version of House Bill 1, while HB0001_5.pdf links to the version of the bill after it has gone through 4 sets of changes. These changes could range from actual bill amendments to an update of the list of sponsors.

Whenever changes are made to a bill, it gets a new filename with the next higher version number. Version numbers do not necessarily coincide with specific steps in the legislative process. If House Bill 1, for example, is not changed at any point before it passes the Legislature, the only versions in the directory for House Bill 1 will be HB0001_01.pdf, the introduced version, and HB0001_x.pdf, the enrolled version.

In general, a method to determine which version you want is to review the status actions of the bill in question and simply count the number of times the bill was printed from the beginning to the point in the process for which you want the bill version. Keep in mind, a new version is created each time a bill is engrossed and a "printed" action is added to the status of the bill after each engrossing. There are two "printed" actions; "(C) Printed - New Version Available" and "(C) Clerical Corrections Made - New Version Available" that indicate a new version. Using the number of "printed" actions (to the point in the process for which version you are looking) add that number to one (the introduced version) and the result is equal to the version number you want. A third action, "(C) Printed - Enrolled Version Available", indicates the existence of an enrolled version for the bill.

Users familiar with the various colors of bills physically printed by the print shop throughout the legislative process should note that bill versions do not necessarily match the colors one to one. Bill version numbers are incremented when changes are made to a bill. The Print Shop prints a bill in colors based on the stage of the legislative process (regardless if the bill is changed). Here is a visual example that helps explain the difference.