WEEK TEN | 2024 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
March 11-15, 2024
In the tenth week of the Sixty-Seventh Idaho Legislature’s Second Regular Session, the Senate and House worked diligently to catch up. The proposed Sine Die date was March 22nd. Still, with the political theater in the House throughout January and delays to the budget-setting process stemming from changes to the process, the Idaho Legislature is adding a week to ten (10) days. House and Senate leadership have noted that the Sine Die date will most likely be pushed to Friday, March 29th. Leaving two (2) full weeks of session, if they don’t recess to let the Governor catch up on treating bills.
The Senate’s traditional long floor sessions of March, used to thin the lengthy third reading calendar, are underway. The Senate moved through their less controversial bills, holding any bill that leadership had heard opposition from to limit debates and roll through vote counts. We anticipate the Senate will start to pick and choose when and what contentious bills they’ll take up as they continue to caucus and make trades with the House next week. Senate leadership and chairs have met several times this week, which tells us they are preparing their committees to start shutting down next week.
With the filing deadline for political candidates in the May Primary Elections being today, Friday, March 15, 2024, at 5 PM, all 105 legislators now know who is running for their seat. The filing deadline happens every two (2) years and is a major motivator for the Legislators who draw primary opponents. Most legislative races are decided in the May Primary Election, and the November General Election becomes a bit of a formality for these races depending on the makeup of the districts. This list will be finalized and updated in next week’s report. Many legislators will face at least one opponent in either the May Primary or November General Election. There were also a handful of legislators who will be retiring or have opted not to run again. This is always interesting, but the number pales in comparison to the overhaul we saw just two years ago in the 2022 election cycle.
The week started with one of the major policy bills failing in committee after months of negotiations. HB 447 – Parental Choice Tax Credit, a private school tuition reimbursement through a tax credit, died in committee after many testifiers spoke for and against the bill. This was a highly anticipated bill introduced in January as a priority of a select House Leadership. An amended substitute motion to send to the floor with no recommendation failed with an 8-9 vote, and the substitute motion passed to hold in committee indefinitely 10-7.
JFAC finished most of their work this week, setting dozens of budgets between Wednesday and Friday. With Education, Health and Welfare, and many other policy bills with fiscal impacts still looming, more budget bills and funding will be needed next week. Until now, the Legislature has not voted down an appropriation bill on the floor. Over the next few weeks, we will see many budgets introduced, voted on, and acted on by the Legislative and Executive branches. As more controversial budgets are up on the floor, only time will tell if these budgets need to be reconsidered by JFAC.
With many bills backed by members of leadership being slow-rolled due to issues or major opposition, we have watched as leadership allows multiple iterations of the same policy to be re-introduced and attempts to push a new version of their idea forward. This is a fascinating departure from past years’ process, resulting in well over six hundred (600) bills being introduced, re-introduced, or amended. There’s still time for plenty of legislation to come out of the drawer or to be introduced in the weeks ahead. The BB&A team is still on high alert and working hard to finish the session strong.
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