2025 Montana legislative session

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2025 Montana legislative session
General information
Scheduled session start:    January 6, 2025 Scheduled session end:    May 9, 2025
Leadership
Senate President Matt Regier (R) House Speaker Brandon Ler (R) Majority Leader Senate: Tom McGillvray (R) House: Steve Fitzpatrick (R) Minority Leader Senate: Pat Flowers (D) House: Katie Sullivan (D)
Elections
Next Election:    November 3, 2026 Last Election:    November 5, 2024
Previous legislative sessions
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2025 legislative sessions
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In 2025, the Montana State Legislature is scheduled to convene on January 6 and adjourn on January 6.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Republicans won a 32-18 majority in the Senate and a 59-41 majority in the House. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Republican state government trifecta. At the start of the 2025 session, Montana was one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session:

Republicans held a majority in the Montana state House and state Senate.

Montana was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas.

Montana's governor was Republican Greg Gianforte.

Leadership in 2025

See also: Leadership positions in state legislatures

Montana State Senate

• Senate president: Matt Regier (R)
• Majority leader: Tom McGillvray (R)
• Minority leader: Pat Flowers (D)

Montana House of Representatives

• Speaker of the House: Brandon Ler (R)
• Majority leader: Steve Fitzpatrick (R)
• Minority leader: Katie Sullivan (D)

Partisan control in 2025

See also: State government trifectas

Montana was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

Montana was also one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Montana State Legislature in the 2025 legislative session.

Montana State Senate

Party		As of January 2025
	Democratic Party	18
	Republican Party	32
Total		50

Montana House of Representatives

Party		As of January 2025
	Democratic Party	41
	Republican Party	59
Total		100

Regular session

The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

Legislation trackers

See also: Legislation Trackers

Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:

• Administrative state
• AI deepfakes
• Election administration

Standing legislative committees

See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Montana state government

A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 33 standing committees in Montana's state government, including 17 state Senate committees and 16 state House committees.

Senate committees

• Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Committee
• Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee
• Committee on Committees
• Education and Cultural Resources Committee
• Energy and Telecommunications Committee
• Finance and Claims Committee
• Fish and Game Committee
• Highways and Transportation Committee
• Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee
• Senate Ethics Committee
• Senate Judiciary Committee
• Senate Legislative Administration Committee
• Senate Local Government Committee
• Senate Natural Resources Committee
• Senate Rules Committee
• Senate State Administration Committee
• Senate Taxation Committee

House committees

• Agriculture Committee
• Appropriations Committee
• Business and Labor Committee
• Energy, Technology, and Federal Relations Committee
• Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee
• House Education Committee
• House Ethics Committee
• House Judiciary Committee
• House Legislative Administration Committee
• House Local Government Committee
• House Natural Resources Committee
• House Rules Committee
• House State Administration Committee
• House Taxation Committee
• Human Services Committee
• Transportation Committee

Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

The methods in which the Montana Constitution can be amended:

See also: Article XIV, Montana Constitution and Laws governing the initiative process in Montana

Montana Constitution
Preamble
Articles
I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII • VIII • IX • X • XI • XII • XIII • XIV • Schedule

The Montana Constitution provides three mechanisms for amending the state's constitution—a citizen-initiated process, a legislative process, and a state constitutional convention. Montana requires a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) for voters to approve constitutional amendments.

Initiative

See also: Initiated constitutional amendment

An initiated constitutional amendment is a citizen-initiated ballot measure that amends a state's constitution. Eighteen (18) states allow citizens to initiate constitutional amendments.

In Montana, the number of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment is equal to 10% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. Montana also has a distribution requirement that requires proponents to collect signatures equal to 10% of the qualified electors in each of two-fifths (40) of the state's 100 legislative districts. A simple majority vote is required for voter approval.

Legislature

See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

A two-thirds (66.67%) vote is required of all members of the legislature during one legislative session for the Montana State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Since Montana has 150 legislators (100 Representatives and 50 Senators), at least 100 members must vote in favor of a constitutional amendment for it to pass. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

Convention

See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

According to Section 3, Article XIV of the Montana Constitution, a question about whether to hold a state constitutional convention is to automatically appear on the state's ballot every 20 years, if it has not otherwise appeared on the ballot in the last 20 years. Montana is one of 14 states that provides for an automatic constitutional convention question.

The table below shows the last and next constitutional convention question election years:

State	Interval	Last question on the ballot	Next question on the ballot
Montana	20 years	2010	2030

The Montana State Legislature is also authorized to submit a constitutional convention question to voters via a two-thirds (66.67%) vote of both chambers. Citizens may also initiate a constitutional convention question. The number of signatures required to place the question on the ballot is equal to 10% of the qualified electors of the state, including at least 10 percent of the qualified electors in each of two-fifths of the legislative districts. Any amendments proposed by a convention must be ratified by the voters.

2026 measures:

See also: Montana 2026 ballot measures

Certified:

The following measures were certified for the ballot.

No measures to list

2025 measures:

Below is a list of measures that were referred to the 2025 ballot by the legislature.

See also: 2025 ballot measures

Certified:

The following measures were certified for the ballot.

No measures to list

Historical partisan control

The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Montana.

Montana Party Control: 1992-2025
No Democratic trifectas  •  Fifteen years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Governor	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R
Senate	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
House	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	S	S	R	R	S	S	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

Historical Senate control

Republicans won control of the Montana State Senate in 2008. In 2024, they won a 32-18 majority.

The table below shows the partisan history of the Montana Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

Montana State Senate election results: 1992-2024

Year	'92	'94	'96	'98	'00	'02	'04	'06	'08	'10	'12	'14	'16	'18	'20	'22	'24
Democrats	30	19	16	18	19	21	27	26	23	22	23	21	18	20	19	16	18
Republicans	20	31	34	32	31	29	23	24	27	28	27	29	32	30	31	34	32

Historical House control

Republicans won control of the Montana House of Representatives in 2010. In 2024, they won a 58-42 majority.

The table below shows the partisan history of the Montana House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

Montana House of Representatives election results: 1992-2024

Year	'92	'94	'96	'98	'00	'02	'04	'06	'08	'10	'12	'14	'16	'18	'20	'22	'24
Democrats	47	33	35	41	42	47	50	49	50	32	37	41	41	42	33	32	42
Republicans	53	67	65	59	58	53	50	50	50	68	63	59	59	58	67	68	58
Other	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Analysis

Adopted legislation, 2011-2024

See also: The State Legislative Decade - Montana

In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.