Week One | Idaho Legislative Session
January 9 - 13, 2023
The first week of the Sixty-Seventh Idaho Legislature's First Regular Session was full of training and orientation meetings for new and returning legislators. Legislative Services Office (LSO) and various other agencies started their presentations in committees to brief legislators on the importance of their departments to the committee. This week, the Idaho State Legislature also received its Respectful Workplace and Ethics training. The first week is when the Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee finishes its final report to the Legislature.
The week began with Governor Little's State of the State Address. The Governor used this opportunity to highlight successes and focus on expanding his Leading Idaho Plan, now called "Idaho First." He highlighted his budget recommendations to include investing in public schools' teachers and staff, workforce devolvement, behavioral health, more tax relief with an emphasis on property tax relief, transportation, infrastructure, broadband, and backing safe communities.
The speech focused on education over any other subject, hitting home that Governor Little wants this session to be full of historic investments for the next generation. Governor Little stated, "To the people of Idaho, we are listening, and we will continue to deliver. We are not backing down on education – we are doubling down on education. My budget and policy recommendations deliver on the mandate given to us by the people of Idaho." To read more about Governor Little's State of the State Address, click HERE for the Governor's press release.
Throughout the week, many committees began to meet but most only held their organizational meeting. During these meetings, they brief committee members on how the committee will operate, allowing us to learn more about each member as they introduce themselves on record. Many committees started the session off with a cordial meeting, and no issues are brought before the committees at this time. In House Revenue and Taxation, Chairman Monks announced that he would not introduce bills during the legislative session's first and possibly second week.
The Joint Finance Appropriations Committee (JFAC) began their work early on Tuesday, January 10th, at 8 AM. LSO reviewed the fundamentals of budgets and appropriations with the JFAC members. With eleven (11) new committee members, and with this being one of the most vital committees, the staff is working on setting the members up for success in the committee with extensive histories, training, and budget overviews, as well as reviewing the Governor's "Idaho First" Plan Budget recommendations. These steps have slowed down the traditional process, but we hope to see movement on major supplemental budget items soon.
House State Affairs Committee wasted no time, as committees opened on Tuesday; this committee was the first to introduce bills, including an abortion bill, an election issues bill, and a House Resolution. The elections bill (HB1) deals with post-election audits being hand counted. The House Resolution is about modifying the House Rules on personal bill limits and removing the ability for these bills to be called up on the House Floor. Previous house floor sessions have weaponized this privilege, so this was an early attempt to prevent the process from being further used for political gain and wasting precious time this year.
BB&A is committed to promptly providing accurate and up-to-date information throughout the session. We have dedicated ourselves to delivering weekly reports containing your top priority policies throughout the 2023 Idaho Legislative Session. If there are bills that are/are not of interest to you, please let us know, as it will ensure we are accurately catering to your interests and allocating resources appropriately. You can see everything we are tracking for sportsmen-related issues here.
All 2023 Idaho Legislative Session bills are on the Idaho State Legislative Website.