Montana Negotiated Rulemaking Act

The Negotiated Rulemaking Act authorizes administrative agencies to develop proposed rules through a consensus-based negotiation process involving representatives of the interests likely to be affected by a rule, as an alternative front end to conventional rulemaking. It provides for a convener to assess whether negotiation is appropriate and to recommend membership, for public notice of the agency's intent to use the process, for the appointment and term of a negotiated rulemaking committee, and for a facilitator to run the committee's deliberations, while also addressing the costs borne by participants and the confidentiality of certain records and communications generated in negotiation. Use of the process does not displace the state's administrative procedure act, whose notice-and-comment and other rulemaking requirements continue to apply.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.