---
type: "Bill"
title: "Providing for procedural rule making authority to the department of labor and industry"
description: "Providing for procedural rule making authority to the department of labor and industry"
jurisdiction: "us/states/mt"
legislature: "Montana Legislature"
session: "2025"
identifier: "HB 261"
citation: "Montana HB 261 (2025)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Labor and Employment", "Rule Making"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brian Close"]
version_count: 17
action_count: 36
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2024-10-04T19:09:47+00:00"
last_action: "2025-04-18T19:05:06+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/43a17b44-adfd-4749-a0e2-b4e7b54cf670"
source_url: "https://bills.legmt.gov/#/laws/bill/2/LC0455?open_tab=sum"
source_hash: "1336d8c4f8905e823017ce4388218543c5df23cacbf7f194a79696321ea4b0f4"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-mt"]
---

# Montana HB 261 (2025) — Providing for procedural rule making authority to the department of labor and industry

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB0261_1(1).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=272733)
2. **HB0261_1(2).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=275361)
3. **HB0261_1(3).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=276410)
4. **HB0261_1(4).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=278537)
5. **HB0261_1(5).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=295426)
6. **HB0261_1(6).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=302224)
7. **HB0261_1.pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=272578)
8. **HB0261_X(1).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=316619)
9. **HB0261_X(2).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=320212)
10. **HB0261_X(3).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=321210)
11. **HB0261_X(4).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=321211)
12. **HB0261_X(5).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=321212)
13. **HB0261_X(6).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=324542)
14. **HB0261_X(7).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=325822)
15. **HB0261_X(8).pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=327344)
16. **HB0261_X.pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=310672)
17. **LC0455.pdf** (committee substitute) — [source](https://api.legmt.gov/docs/v1/documents/getContent?documentId=270307)

## Votes

- Do Pass — **94–5** (pass) · lower
- be_concurred_in — **11–0** (pass) · upper
- Do Concur — **45–5** (pass) · upper
- Do Concur — **48–2** (pass) · upper
- Do Pass — **98–1** (pass) · lower
- do_pass — **20–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Brian Close — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2024-10-04T19:09:47+00:00** (LC) Drafter Assigned
- **2024-10-04T19:09:48+00:00** (LC) Draft On Hold
- **2024-12-31T19:12:03+00:00** (LC) Draft in Legal Review
- **2025-01-07T00:19:02+00:00** (LC) Draft in Edit
- **2025-01-09T00:51:37+00:00** (LC) Draft in Input/Proofing
- **2025-01-09T17:40:24+00:00** (LC) Draft in Final Drafter Review
- **2025-01-09T21:31:36+00:00** (LC) Draft in Assembly
- **2025-01-10T22:19:57+00:00** (LC) Draft Ready for Delivery
- **2025-01-20T14:23:59+00:00** (H) Introduced
- **2025-01-20T17:20:00+00:00** (H) Referred to Committee - (H) Business and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2025-01-20T20:18:40+00:00** (H) First Reading `reading-1`
- **2025-01-23T19:30:40+00:00** (H) Hearing - (H) Business and Labor
- **2025-01-28T20:00:42+00:00** (H) Committee Executive Action--Bill Passed - (H) Business and Labor `committee-passage`
- **2025-01-28T21:27:00+00:00** (H) Committee Report--Bill Passed - (H) Business and Labor `committee-passage`
- **2025-01-31T20:00:00+00:00** (H) Scheduled for 2nd Reading `reading-2`
- **2025-01-31T21:17:00+00:00** (H) 2nd Reading Passed `reading-2, reading-2`
- **2025-02-03T20:00:00+00:00** (H) Scheduled for 3rd Reading `reading-3`
- **2025-02-03T21:41:00+00:00** (H) 3rd Reading Passed `passage, reading-3`
- **2025-02-03T22:43:50+00:00** (H) Transmitted to Senate
- **2025-02-04T20:19:01+00:00** (S) First Reading `reading-1`
- **2025-02-18T18:56:58+00:00** (S) Referred to Committee - (S) Business, Labor and Economic Affairs `referral-committee`
- **2025-02-21T15:21:38+00:00** (S) Hearing - (S) Business, Labor and Economic Affairs
- **2025-03-19T17:42:16+00:00** (S) Committee Executive Action--Bill Concurred - (S) Business, Labor and Economic Affairs
- **2025-03-20T21:48:00+00:00** (S) Committee Report--Bill Concurred - (S) Business, Labor and Economic Affairs
- **2025-03-28T19:00:00+00:00** (S) Scheduled for 2nd Reading `reading-2`
- **2025-03-28T21:02:00+00:00** (S) 2nd Reading Concurred `reading-2, reading-2`
- **2025-03-31T19:00:00+00:00** (S) Scheduled for 3rd Reading `reading-3`
- **2025-03-31T21:19:00+00:00** (S) 3rd Reading Concurred `passage, reading-3`
- **2025-03-31T21:20:18+00:00** (H) Sent to Enrolling
- **2025-04-02T19:39:23+00:00** (LC) Draft Delivered to Requester
- **2025-04-02T19:39:47+00:00** (H) Returned from Enrolling
- **2025-04-07T18:00:24+00:00** (H) Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2025-04-09T17:30:28+00:00** (S) Signed by President `passage`
- **2025-04-09T19:50:28+00:00** (H) Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2025-04-17T20:02:01+00:00** (H) Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2025-04-18T19:05:06+00:00** Chapter Number Assigned `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/43a17b44-adfd-4749-a0e2-b4e7b54cf670`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Montana legislature records).