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Redesign of the Legislature’s Website

Prior to the 2025 Legislative Session, the Legislature is preparing to unveil a newly designed leg.mt.gov website to better assist the public and legislators navigate the next legislative session.

Purpose of Website

Thanks to many talented people, the Montana Legislature has maintained a website since at least 1997, that serves two primary purposes.

The first purpose is to encourage public participation in the legislative process by providing easy access to legislative information: bills, amendments, agendas, meeting materials, video recordings of legislative meetings, and records of how legislators vote in committee and in their respective chambers.

The second purpose is to assist legislators organize and manage all that is expected of them as they serve the public in this important capacity.

If it Works, Why Change it?

Critical legislative data bases are past their recommended life expectancy. Some are beginning to experience failures. Left unresolved, these old data sources could lead to a catastrophic failure of the website. It is therefore necessary to consolidate all the data into one data base. Once the consolidation of data sources is complete, the Legislature will be able to maintain the accuracy of information across all platforms, create a universal search engine, and a master calendar, necessary functions that will assist legislators and the public better navigate the legislative process.

New Website Functions

Legislative Portal (Release August 5)
This secure legislative portal will assist legislators find, disperse, and manage common tasks and responsibilities. It will provide the necessary tools to help legislators organize and manage their bill requests, receive and respond to public comment about bills and amendments, and submit administrative forms. 

Master Calendar/Universal Search Engine (Release October 1)
The Legislative website utilizes data from several different databases, and it has been challenging to maintain the accuracy of information across all platforms. By creating a universal search engine and a master calendar that will be prominently displayed on the main page of the website, the public can easily find what they are looking for, whether it be an upcoming committee meeting or a search tool to find other information.

Improve Current Functions

Bill Explorer (Release July 15. Updates to bill histories on or near July 22, August 5, August 19, September 2, and September 9)
Perhaps the most used tool on the Legislature’s website, Bill Lookup, now called Bill Explorer, allows a user to find any bill or resolution by selecting a session, bill number, or legislator. Users can read or print the exact text of any bill or resolution, find an up-to-date status of the bill, and review legislators’ votes. With a password protected account, users can also sign up for an email notification so that each time a selected bill is scheduled for a public hearing, the user receives a notification by email.


Create New Legislative Committee Pages (Release October 1)
One important feature of the new committee pages will be the ability for any user to have simultaneous access to the committee agenda and meeting materials. The public can easily search for and review any legislative committee agenda, watch or listen to meeting recordings, or read the meeting materials of any committee, past or present.

Create New Pages for the House, Senate, Fiscal, Audit, Research, and Financial Offices (Release October 1)
Each staff office will create an individual webpage that allows that office to provide important information to legislators and the public. 

The redesigned leg.mt.gov website is scheduled to be released in the following phases.

  • July 15, 2024: Release Bill Explorer, replaces Bill Lookup (2023, 2021, 2019 bills)
  • July 22, 2024: Release Update to Bill Explorer (Chapter search, 2015 and 2017 bills)
  • August 5, 2024: Release new Secure Legislative Portal 
  • August 5, 2024: Release Update to Bill Explorer (Additional Bill Histories)
  • August 19, 2024: Release Update to Bill Explorer (Additional Bill Histories)
  • September 2, 2024: Release Update to Bill Explorer (Additional Bill Histories)
  • September 9, 2024: Release Update to Bill Explorer (Back to 1999)
  • October 1, 2024: Release of redesigned leg.mt.gov website with subsequent changes to come during the 2025 Interim.


 

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