Montana Title 5. Legislative Branch § 5-5-217. Selection and assignment of interim studies

(1) Immediately following adjournment sine die, the legislative services division shall prepare a list of study requests adopted. A copy of the list must be distributed to each legislator with a request that the legislator rank the study requests in the order of importance that the legislator ascribes to them. The lists, with the priorities assigned, must be returned to the legislative services division.

(2) The legislative council shall review the priority lists returned by legislators, review estimated costs and staff assistance associated with the requested studies, and designate those studies to be assigned. In designating studies, the legislative council may combine requests as one study when the subject matter of those requests is closely related. The legislative council shall designate the interim committees and statutory committees to be assigned the studies and shall assign related studies to the same committee.

(3) The legislative services division shall inform the interim committees and statutory committees of those studies that have been selected and to which interim committee or statutory committee each study has been assigned. An interim committee or a statutory committee may recommend to the legislative council that an interim study assigned to that committee should be reassigned to another interim committee or statutory committee or should not be conducted. The legislative council may adopt, reject, or modify the interim committee recommendation.