Legislative Council Assigns Policy Studies for Interim

The Legislative Council on Wednesday assigned 16 policy studies - on topics ranging from auto insurance to worker compensation rates - to legislative committees to work on during the interim between the 2009 and 2011 sessions.

The committees will tackle another four interim studies that were authorized and funded through the passage of new laws. Later, committee members may also choose to pursue additional studies, if time and other resources allow.

Every session, legislators identify issues they want to study in more depth during the interims, or periods between biennial sessions. Interim committees often invite experts to present information to them. Sometimes committee members travel to other communities to visit state institutions or hear from Montanans unable to travel to the Capitol.

All interim committee meetings are open to the public, and public comment is encouraged.

You can listen to the meetings live on the legislative website. They are archived for future reference. The meetings are also televised statewide on Television Montana, or TVMT.

Legislators use what they learn from the interim studies to make well-informed decisions about what new policies to consider during upcoming sessions.

By law, the Legislative Council, a bipartisan committee of legislative leaders, is required to assign interim studies that legislators approved through passage of resolutions. Studies authorized through the passage of bills are not discretionary.

In some cases, interim committees will address a policy issue through a staff report, or white paper, rather than through a full-blown committee study.

The policy issues that interim committees will study between now and the fall of 2010, along with their associated bills or resolutions, are:

• Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Committee
  Health care (Senate Joint Resolution, or SJR, 35)
  Community services for people with developmental disabilities (white paper) (House Joint Resolution, or HJR, 39)
• Economic Affairs Committee
  Worker compensation rates and the Montana State Fund (SJR 30)
  Cooperative arrangements between state laboratories (SJR 14)
• Education and Local Government
  Historic preservation (white paper) (HJR 32)
  Process to establish community colleges (white paper) (SJR 2)
• Energy and Telecommunications Committee
  State energy policy (Senate Bill, or SB, 290)
• Environmental Quality Council
  Biomass (HJR 1)
  Fire suppression (HJR 30)
  Recycling and solid-waste recovery (white paper) (SJR 28)
  Funding for a recreation and tourism enhancement program (white paper) (HJR 15)
• Law and Justice Committee
  DUI laws and their enforcement (SJR 39)
  Retention of DNA evidence by state and local law enforcement agencies (SJR 29)
• Legislative Finance Committee
  Student loan system (SJR 9)
• Revenue and Transportation Committee
  Taxation of oil and natural gas property (House Bill, or HB, 657)
  Property tax reappraisal (HB 658)
  Automobile insurance and compliance with mandatory requirements (SJR 16)
  Income tax filing by married taxpayers (SJR 37)
• State Administration and Veterans' Affairs Committee
  Public retirement systems (HB 659)
  Bonus payments to state employees (HJR 35)

For more information about the interim work of the Legislature, including signup for e-mail notification of committee meetings, visit the individual committee web pages listed above. You can find information about the bills and resolutions at leg.mt.gov under "Bills."

General information about the interim is available on the legislative website, leg.mt.gov, under the "Between Sessions" link.

You may also contact the Legislative Information Office at 406-444-2957.