Senate committee advances interim study on green burials and water cremation (HJ 27)

The Senate Business and Labor Committee voted to advance House Joint Resolution 27, which requests an interim study of morticians, funeral services and alternative final dispositions including natural organic reduction (also called green burial) and alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation). The committee approved the resolution during executive action and sent it to the floor with a carrier assigned.

Representative Denise Baum (House District 45), who sponsored HJ 27, told the committee she brought the measure after a constituent described multiple, closely spaced family deaths and a need for more time and options to grieve. “I bring before this committee today HJ 27, which is a request for an interim study on morticians and funeral services along with studying alternative final dispositions such as natural organic reduction and alkaline hydrolysis,” Baum said.

Baum and industry witnesses framed the study as a chance to streamline Montana law, consolidate definitions spread across several title sections,…