WEEK NINE | 2024 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
March 4 - 8, 2024
In the ninth week of the Sixty-Seventh Idaho Legislature’s Second Regular Session, Governor Brad Little has ramped up his treatment of bills that have passed both the House and Senate. The task of working through policies and deciding if they need his signature, a veto, or to become law without a signature is an Idaho tradition and constitutional requirement. However, the process has become grueling at times. As hundreds of bills flood the Governor’s desk in the month of March, under a tight deadline to treat all bills, the role of the Governor is again at the forefront of the session.
The vast number of bills this session is now expected to extend the length of the session, much to the chagrin of legislators who have primary elections right around the corner in May 2024. The change in process, allowing legislators to try the same idea multiple times, is a departure from previous years, when legislators had to get stakeholder input and commitments before introducing a bill. Removing this requirement has caused many bills to be introduced and, at times, reintroduced without support. This results in committees working through long and contested hearings on bills with technical issues, unintended consequences, and outright opposition from all affected parties. It also limits well-drafted and thoughtful policies from moving forward as quickly as possible due to limited capacity and time to consider all the bills. Thus, the chairs are left to bear the burden of what will and won’t make the committee agenda before time runs out.
The transmittal deadline for both chambers to move their bills from one side to the next came Monday. However, dozens of House bills are still sitting on the House’s calendar, and nearly 100 bills are on the Senate’s calendar. The Speaker and Majority Leader cautioned the House to take up more bills. The Senate has met on the floor twice daily, Monday through Thursday. Protracted debates and a lack of consensus on many bills resulted in limited progress being made by the Senate as they continued to work diligently through a few bills at a time. The House amended bills Friday, further signaling their commitment to work towards passage of bills that needed more work; this is a rare occasion for the House but a common practice for the Senate.
JFAC finished hearing budget presentations this Thursday, ending with the heavily scrutinized Division of Medicaid Budget. The Committee’s goal is to allow working groups to meet on Monday and Tuesday, then set the final remaining budgets next week on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. These budgets include Universities, Commerce, Medicaid, and the Office of the Governor. With such large budgets being set, there is typically a two-week delay for adjournment as Legislative Services works night and day to draft the appropriation bills needed. Numerous other appropriations have trickled onto the floor in the past week, further contributing to the large log jam of bills.
Leadership cautioned their committee chairs this week, imploring them to start shutting down their committees and yielding more time to floor sessions. Starting next week, Senate nonprivileged committees will meet from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM, cutting lunch breaks and the length of the committee for longer afternoon floor sessions in the Senate. There is no word yet on the plans for the House committees, but we anticipate they will act similarly and begin narrowing their time and focus next week. Often, these changes are recognized by the term “Call of the Chair” when daily committee agendas are updated with no actions taken by the committee.
Despite these conversations, the House Ways and Means Committee has been active and printing new bills frequently. We expect this to continue next week. A large portion of these bills have been rewritten from previous bills. The work continues, and while emotions are running high and legislators are becoming eager to finish their priorities and be done, there are many good things left to do, and we remain committed to working hard for you through the very end of the session and beyond. Make you you keep up to date on everything we’re working on and visit our Bill Tracker.
