Montana Regulatory Program

What it does

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM), are denying an amendment to the Montana regulatory program under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). Montana submitted this proposed amendment to OSM on its own initiative in response to a State law passed by the Montana Legislature (Senate Bill (SB) 392). The proposed amendment would have added a provision requiring equal application of court costs to the prevailing party in contested case proceedings by a court or administrative agency that issues a decision. The proposal would have also amended the Montana Code Annotated (MCA) to refer to the proposed equal application of court costs rule. Finally, SB 392 includes contingencies that apply to the proposed amendment but are not codified into the MCA: codification instructions, a severability clause, an effective date clause, and an applicability statement.

The Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Office's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

1 part of Title 30 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

30 CFR 926

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Office has published 21 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 24 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

The effective date is September 24, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket OSM-2023-0008 on Regulations.gov
• Title 30 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register