WEEK TWELVE | 2024 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
In the twelfth week of the Sixty-Seventh Idaho Legislature’s Second Regular Session, the Legislature slowly worked through bills. The Governor continued to treat bills quickly. Senate and House leadership negotiated and begrudgingly worked through contentious bills. With multiple appropriations failing in the Senate this week, the session continues.
Early this week, HB 723 - Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) and HB 735- Permanent Building Fund (Department of Administration) budgets were sent back to Committee from the Senate floor only to be sent back to the Floor as drafted later in the week. Legislators raised concerns over a hotly contested decision to undo the sale of the ITD complex on State Street in Boise, the addition of 53 new full-time positions, and considerations for moving or repairing an ITD facility in Shoshone, Idaho. This resulted in a nearly two-hour debate on the ITD budget, ultimately failing the Senate late Thursday afternoon (16-19). The 1.3-billion-dollar budget will now need to be reworked before the Legislature can adjourn. With pressure mounting and the session dragging on, both the House and Senate recessed until Tuesday to give more time for negotiations and alternative solutions to be worked out.
While the ITD budget was the crux this week, the Judicial Branch budget died (15-20), and the Division of Welfare died (10-25). While these bills failed on the Senate Floor this week, JFAC moved quickly to rework and pass new versions, removing contentious line items. Medicaid, public schools, and Idaho Launch appropriations are all still waiting to be voted on; in addition to changes to funding for 4- or 5-day schools with the newly passed House Bill 521 and no clear path for the ITD budget, there is still a strong possibility for budgets to sink next week. Between the House and Senate, there have been nine (9) bills introduced with many similar fixes within all the bills pertaining to Launch and the facilities bill (521). Each side has been very friendly and accepting of their solutions and bills on this topic but has shot down similar solutions from the other side of the rotunda.
Despite the exhaustion of the Legislature and its staff, more policy bills continued to be introduced this week. Many other bills came out of the chairmen’s drawers and moved swiftly across the finish line, forcing many committees to reopen to host hearings on the latecomers' bills. Aside from these exceptions, committees have become very quiet as the House and Senate work overtime to debate budgets and other pressing bills that stand in the way of the Legislature adjourning “Sine Die.”
As we enter week thirteen of the Session, House and Senate leadership tensions are high. They are in a reactive stage to one another, and communication seems to be lacking. We have seen this permeate to the approval and rejection of administrative rules as well. Following a recent Idaho Supreme Court ruling, all rules need to be approved or rejected through a joint resolution. Originally, the chairmen worked together to form a single resolution reflecting the actions that both committees have taken on the rules, but chairmen have been at odds on what the committees approved or rejected. As a result, there have been many resolutions introduced, with copious amounts of corrections, to get the rules approved correctly before the session ends.
The Idaho Legislature will continue to work next week, hoping for solutions and compromises to come over the Easter holiday weekend. As bills go to the Governor’s desk, the Legislature may still need to wait some or all of the procedural five (5) days for the Governor to treat bills before officially adjourning “Sine Die.” The Session could wrap up mid-week next week or be prolonged even further. Many legislators are highly motivated to finish the session and start their campaign for their Primary Election, which is now weeks away. However, without agreements from leadership, only time will tell when resolutions will come and, with it, the end to a turbulent and dynamic legislative session in April. Stay up to date by checking our Bill Tracker.
