WEEK TWO | 2024 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
January 15 - 19, 2024
In the second week of the Sixty-Seventh Idaho Legislature’s Second Regular Session, the House continued advancing several social issues that packed committee rooms to capacity. Although this feels like later in the session, this is just the start of the contentious social issues that the Legislature will take up. More social and personal bills were introduced from both the House and Senate. Abortion, mask mandates, guns on campus, and more were all included in the introductions this week.
The Senate is no longer allowed to introduce personal bills after today, but the House removed its deadline for personal bills, allowing legislators to introduce personal bills anytime during the session. JFAC had early fireworks this week, as the committee voted on party lines to approve 21 different maintenance budgets that encompass every state agency budget without line items or supplementals. These maintenance budgets were set at the Committee’s first meeting of the week, with heavy pushback from the minority party members. The most interesting part of this process is that it has created a massive efficiency and an even larger hostage situation than last year. Also, the previous factions within the majority party members on JFAC seem to be pacified as we saw no public pushback on the Co-Chair’s new methods. These budgets included zero line items and only allocated for a 1% increase in change in employee compensation. For the remainder of the session, we will see JFAC hear from agencies regarding line items to determine which select items to fund.
Leadership and the JFAC Co-Chairs have been planning for the funds not allocated in the maintenance budgets. With school vouchers and income tax cuts being the primary focus for the House, their goal is to keep as much funding for these “priorities” as possible. This opposes the Governor’s proposed budget as there is not enough funding to do everything the Governor and Speaker want to do. Thus, big-ticket items like Idaho Launch, Medicaid, and transportation funding are all considered potential programs to cut to make room for Speaker Mike “King” Moyle’s list of demands. BB&A has been monitoring these budgets closely to identify where potential cuts can be made without harming Idahoans and their top priorities.
The House and Senate also began hearing from agencies regarding their pending rules waiting to be approved. Many of these rules are up for review due to the zero-based regulation (ZBR) Executive Order. The process has created an opportunity to revise agencies’ rules to clarify, reduce administrative burden, and cut duplicative language. However, many legislators have caught on to agencies approaching the ZBR process to reduce word count. We have heard the frustration from leadership and other legislators who have grown tiresome of reviewing rules that have inadvertently created additional confusion to hit word count goals. The House and Senate must approve the rule for the rule to be enacted after the state Legislature votes to Sine Die. This process will continue for the first few weeks, but some rules have already been held up.
We will continue to see the session accelerate as we head towards February. RS introduction deadlines are approaching. Floor sessions remain short. Committee meetings will gradually be longer and moreLEGISLATIVE UPDATE | WEEK TWO contentious. Agency presentations will dwindle, and the number of bills to address will grow. All 105 Legislators are very aware of the election right around the corner. It has been interesting to see how their voting patterns have changed since last year.
The BB&A team has been working diligently to protect your interests. If you have any questions or concerns as we enter the next week of the session, please do not hesitate to let us know. Things are ramping up in the Capitol, and we are here for you. Make sure to keep current on legislation and visit our Bill Tracker.
