SB 47 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Enhance committee review of statewide ballot issues

SB 47 requires Montana's legislative committees to review proposed statewide ballot initiatives after a court determines they are legally sufficient. This bill directly affects initiative proponents (who submit proposals), the secretary of state (who administers ballot processes), and legislative committees (who must now conduct a mandatory review). The key mechanism adds a new step: if a court finds an initiative legally valid, the secretary of state must refer it to legislative committees for review before finalizing ballot language. This changes the existing process, which previously only required attorney general review after court approval. The bill aims to strengthen legislative oversight of ballot measures before they appear on voter ballots.
Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Dec 2024
Committee Review
Jan 2025
Senate Passage
Jan 2025
House Passage
Governor
Introduced Dec 18, 2024 Last action May 23, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC0615.pdf SB0047_1.pdf · 2 edits
MINOR
The bill was renumbered from LC 0615 to SB 47.1 and the sponsor was identified as W. McKamey. A new requirement was added for the secretary of state to provide a copy of the final initiative text to the executive director of the legislative services division, indicating a procedural update to improve inter-agency communication.
REQUIREMENT

Added a requirement for the secretary of state to provide the final initiative text to the executive director of the legislative services division.

TECHNICAL

Updated the bill number from LC 0615 to SB 47.1 and identified the primary sponsor as W. McKamey.

Floor votes · Senate Jan 31, 2025

How they voted

2921
Passed
Total votes 50
Jan 31, 2025
D Democratic18
2 Yea 16 Nay
88% Nay
R Republican32
27 Yea 5 Nay
84% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
23
Key actions
3
Committee
3
Jan 31, 2025
Senate · Passed
Senate Vote: pass (29-21)
senate
Jan 28, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Report - (S) State Administration
upper
Jan 28, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) State Administration
upper
Jan 7, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) State Administration
upper
Dec 18, 2024
Introduced
(S) Introduced
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Wendy McKamey
Wendy McKamey
RRepublican
MT
12