After its first day back in session, what did the Idaho Legislature accomplish?
Idaho legislators returned to the Capitol on Monday and began the morning with introducing 36 pieces of legislation.
House members also took care of one big item on the to-do list: voting on an ethics panel’s recommendation to censure Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird. The House was required to vote on the ethics report before the end of the year.
The House supported Giddings’ removal from the House Commerce and Human Resources Committee after she shared a far-right post that identified a 19-year-old intern who accused a lawmaker of sexual assault. The House ethics panel also said she exhibited a pattern of dishonesty and disrespect to her colleagues.
But in a return to session that Republican leaders hope will last only three days, more than 20 draft bills will still need to be voted on by committees to move to a floor vote after day one. Bills will need both House and Senate support to become law.
A flurry of bills left committees scrambling to hold meetings in the afternoon. The House Business Committee met late into the evening to slog through hearings for eight bills, and public testimony and discussion for the first two bills ran for three hours.
The committee ultimately sent several measures to be amended and three bills to the House floor. House Bill 415 — sponsored by Rep. Gayann DeMordaunt, R-Eagle — places vaccine exemptions into state law and includes natural immunity as an exemption. House Bill 419, sponsored by Rep. Ron Mendive, R-Coeur d’Alene, would bar employers from requiring a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment.
House Bill 421, sponsored by House Assistant Majority Leader Jason Monks, R-Meridian, would put into state law Gov. Brad Little’s “vaccine passports” executive order. It would prohibit state agencies from requiring proof of vaccination for employment or to enter state-owned property. It would also bar agencies from requiring negative test results. Someone who violates the law would face a $500 to $1,000 fine.
The House will be back on the floor again at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
$2 million ‘federal overreach’ defense fund rejected
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee shot down the first version of a bill to create a “federal overreach” legal defense fund, a fund supported by Senate Republican leaders, after testimony against the measure. Opponents of the fund pointed to two legal defense funds that already exist. The bill was rejected in a 12-6 vote.
Keith Bybee from the Legislative Services Office told committee members that the constitutional defense fund has $1.1 million, and the legislative defense fund has $3.7 million left.
Ada County Commission Chairman Rod Beck, a former state senator, told committee members they should instead use the constitutional defense fund to fight federal overreach — what it was initially intended for, Beck said — and to stop using it as a “slush fund” to hire outside legal counsel.
Bills sent to House Health and Welfare Committee won’t get a hearing, chairman says
As House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, called the House to recess, Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, interrupted to announce that the House Health and Welfare Committee would not hold hearings for the nine bills that were assigned to it. A group of onlookers and supporters of Giddings in the House gallery broke out with shouting and loud boos.
Rep. Fred Wood, a physician who chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee, didn’t return requests for comment Monday. But he confirmed to Idaho Reports that he would not be holding hearings for any of the nine bills that were assigned to his committee.
“I profoundly disagree with all nine of them,” Wood, R-Burley, told Idaho Reports.
Those bills included preventing local officials from enforcing federal mandates, barring vaccine mandates or required disclosure of immunization status, and repealing state law that allows minors 14 and older to consent to medical care. (Parents would be the only ones allowed to consent to their treatment.)
Two bills, sponsored by DeMordaunt, would have prevented licensing boards from disciplining health care providers for prescribing drugs to COVID-19 patients that have not been fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Idaho Senate Republicans in a statement Monday said they believe in “limited government” and that much of the legislation proposed by House members can be considered during the next session that begins Jan. 10.
“We embrace our freedom as Idahoans to govern ourselves and push back against federal overreach that threatens our way of life,” Senate Republicans’ statement said. “We also recognize that we are not immune to the risk of government overreach from within and commit to limiting the growth of state government by preserving our role as a part-time citizen legislature.”
House Republican leaders said the Legislature should take a stand against federal vaccine mandates, but want to ensure that they’re selective about the bills that make it to the floor for votes.
“The Idaho House Republican Caucus is working to ensure that only complete and timely legislation advance to the House floor,” the statement said. While fighting federal mandates is urgent, the caucus said, “it’s not our intention to waste taxpayer money.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
