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2025 Legislative Session

During the 2025 Legislative Session, MACD will be focused on maintaining district funding passed during the 2023 session and  actively working on several other issues based on resolutions submitted during 2024 Convention, alongside other resolutions on file from previous years.

As the statewide association, MACD only testifies on bills, resolutions, or other policy issues if it: (1) Directly relates to a MACD Resolution (voted on and passed by membership at our annual convention) or basic district operations (impacts to funding, etc) or (2) Is voted on by the MACD Legislative Committee. If there are divergent opinions across districts, MACD will often remain in a ‘monitor’ or ‘informational’ status. . Any contentious issues may be moved from the Legislative Committee to the full MACD Board for a vote.

OVERVIEW

This webpage provides a great overview of conservation districts, which are units of local government designed to help citizens conserve their soil, water, and other renewable natural resources.

This is a helpful resource to share with Legislators, partners, and anyone who would like to learn more about CDs!

RESOURCES

Use this map to find the legislative district(s) that overlap with your District’s service area.  You can also find contact information for both your Senator and Representative by clicking on your district.

You can find information for the House and Senate Committees for the 2025 Session

Online list of all legislator emails, phone numbers, and mailing addresses. You can download as excel, csv, or pdf.

MACD put together a guide to help conservation districts with speaking to the Montana Legislature.

You can request to testify remotely here.   There are directions on how to find your committee and bill. Please reach out to MACD if you need further assistance.                                                                                     For 2025, you may register for zoom testimony up to 2 hours before the start of a committee hearing. You will be able to submit your written testimony, write a brief message, or request a Zoom link to testify in the bill hearing.

Document that describes the basics of Conservation Districts in Montana.

For the 2025 Session, MACD will be utilizing the new Bill Tracker software through Legislative Services. This will enable us to generate reports to quickly, easily, and regularly update districts on the status of relevant bills.

For a quick overview – the MACD Online Bill Tracker shows bills that the MACD Legislative Committee has voted on (note: this does not include all bills that MACD is monitoring).

PAST & UPCOMING LEGISLATIVE EVENTS

  • 01/06: Start of the 2025 Legislative Session

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MACD LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE

Legislative Committee

During the Legislation Session, the MACD Legislative Committee meets weekly on Tuesdays at 7am via zoom. Please contact rebecca@macdnet.org if you would like to join and have not received a link through one of the ListServs or District Dispatch.

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ARCHIVED TALKING POINTS (FROM 2023 SESSION)

This handout provides background information on conservation districts and outlines the projected financial impact of HB 321 if passed.

Document to assist with Section C Subcommittee talking points. Background, what the committee knows, support statement, talking points, and additional details.

Policy News

LATEST

Policy Blog

The MACD Policy Blog provides updates about current legislative developments relative to Montana’s Conservation Districts.

Summary of CD Funding from 2021 – 2022

At the final meeting of the 2021/2022 Environmental Quality Council (EQC) in September – and as a culmination of MACD’s HJ27 CD Funding Study Bill – the EQC voted to move the proposed CD funding bill forward into the 2023 session. You can view the bill in the Legislative Overview Document: Conservation Districts in the 2023 Legislative Session (pdf).

As written, the proposed CD funding legislation would annually provide a total of $6 million dollars of funding into the Conservation District Account (CDA), nearly doubling currently available funds. This funding would come from a combination of coal tax dollars and marijuana tax funding.

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