Week Five | Idaho Legislative Update
February 6 - 10, 2023
In the fifth week of the Sixty-Seventh Idaho Legislature's First Regular Session, committees were hard at work printing multiple RSs before the Monday, February 13th deadline. After Monday, most committees will lose their privilege to introduce legislation without approval from the Pro Tem or Speaker. The introduction of bills will slow down after this deadline but make no mistake - we will continue to see more bills introduced until the last day of the session. We will also see the House Ways and Means Committee utilized by leadership as the nonprivileged committees lose their ability to introduce bills.
Both the House and Senate chambers saw their first contentious floor sessions about HB 24 – Idaho Launch Program, for in-demand careers. The bill provides Idaho graduating high school students $8,500 for further education and certification training for the needed careers in Idaho. The bill was heard on the House floor Monday as House Majority Leader Megan Blanksma emphasized the need for the bill and worked the floor through a two-hour debate that extended through the lunch hour. The House voted in support of HB 24 (36-34) without a vote to spare.
On Tuesday, when HB 24 was moved to the Senate and is in the process of being routed to the Senate Commerce and Human Resource Committee, Senator Nichols demanded to direct it to Senate Education. She believes she will be able to kill it in that Committee. Senate Education has a reputation this session as the most conservative Committee in the Idaho State Legislature, often resistant to funding education, higher education, and the public school system. Senate Leadership immediately called for the Senate to go at ease and for the Senate Majority Caucus to meet. After an hour-and-a-half caucus meeting, the Senate majority members trickled back in. Senator Nichols motioned to reroute HB 24 to Senate Education; the motion failed (9-26). 2004 was the last time the Senate made this attempt. These attempts mark another departure from the traditional process seen by this new legislature.
Despite the political theatrics, the Senate sent HB 24 to Senate Commerce and Human Resources. Many returning members of the Senate are settling in for a less statesmanlike approach to floor sessions. House members are typically more familiar with these stunts on the floor, and with some of the former House members in the Senate, this is unsurprising. Leadership must be quick on their toes to prevent the process from being weaponized - this could be the first of many stunts pulled on the Senate Floor.
Late Thursday, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee (JFAC) announced a comprise to begin voting on budgets just a week before the projected deadline. Majority leadership and JFAC Co-Chairs have determined that the Committee will continue to place their vote simultaneously, but announcing the House and Senate members' votes will be done separately. When a budget receives majority support from the Committee as a whole but not a majority from both Senate and House members, the budget is sent first to the chamber without a majority vote to approve. JFAC also announced they would reassess this process during the interim.
Although this is not a perfect solution, this will suffice for the remainder of the session to allow JFAC to start clearing up the logjam of supplementals and begin their work. They will start moving millions of dollars daily toward agencies' budgets in a week.
We are starting to see more and more contentious hearings in committees. These stem from fentanyl mandatory minimums, transgender children, school choice vouchers, Medicaid Expansion repeal, and many more. We also continue to see legislators introducing a variety of property tax ideas. While these bills are not the right solution, they will lead to more conversations to find what is a plausible solution. To see our progress on bills, budgets, and rules we are monitoring on our Bill Tracker.