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Committee hears bill allowing digital copies of livestock travel permits
Summary
The House Agriculture Committee heard Senate Bill 80, which would allow producers to carry electronic copies of travel permits for transporting livestock across county lines. Department staff and producer groups supported the change, saying it will modernize practice and reduce paperwork; no committee vote was recorded.
The House Agriculture Committee opened a hearing on Senate Bill 80, a measure that would allow livestock producers to carry electronic copies of travel permits when transporting animals across county lines or to markets instead of requiring the original paper form.
Senator Josh Kasmier, sponsor of the bill, said the change would modernize a handwritten permit system and be particularly helpful for horse owners who use lifetime permits. Jay Bodner, Brands Division administrator at the Department of Livestock, told the committee inspectors sometimes encounter producers who show a photo of a permit on a phone but are technically not in compliance with current law.
"We actually have even seen people that we've stopped said, 'well, I don't have that in my possession, but here's a copy on my phone,'" Bodner said. The department proposed the bill in part to match approaches used by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks for electronic licenses and to reduce manual entry of paper permits into departmental files.
Industry groups urged support. Karli Johnson of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation said digital permits would be "so handy" for producers who travel in multiple vehicles and need a copy of a travel permit in each truck. Ellie Brighton of the Montana Stockers Association told the committee the association supports the measure as a simpler, more efficient process.
Bodner described current enforcement practices: the department operates 16 law-enforcement district investigators and relies on about 550 local deputy stock inspectors who use handwritten forms; the department can perform electronic inspections in some situations but is not yet fully digital. A question from Representative Baum prompted Bodner to confirm the department is moving toward electronic inspections but is "quite a few years out" from being fully paperless.
Proponents asked the committee for a due pass. The hearing closed with no committee vote recorded; committee staff said executive action on bills is planned for next Tuesday.
