WEEK THIRTEEN | 2024 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
April 1 - 5, 2024
In the thirteenth week of the Sixty-Seventh Idaho Legislature’s Second Regular Session, the Legislature returned from Easter recess to move expeditiously through the remaining bills before recessing again until next Wednesday. Perhaps the most tumultuous two days of the session happened Tuesday and Wednesday before the House recessed on Wednesday at 4:32 PM and the Senate recessed at 8:04 PM that night to wait the mandated five (5) days for the Governor to treat all the bills. The Legislature will return next week to consider overriding any vetoes, finish any last items, and finally, Adjourn “Sine Die” for the year. The session is expected to wrap up mid-week next week finally, and we will be there to the very end.
The biggest fight of the session, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) budget enhancements, included language revoking the sale of the State Street ITD headquarters. This led to multiple introductions of similar bills from JFAC. Including Senate Bill 1461 being introduced Tuesday and being hung up in a parliamentary move by Senate Pro Tem Winder who used Mason’s Rules of Order to break long standing tradition on budget bills that needed corrected. After it stalled on the Senate Floor, JFAC met for a third time Wednesday and introduced House Bill 770, again with the same language and slight adjustments to the numbers in the budget. Swiftly and with no debate, HB 770 narrowly passed the House Wednesday on a vote of 37-31-2 and later was taken up on the Senate floor and passed by one vote, 18-17.
Other last-minute bills with corrections included HB 766 as a cleanup for HB 521 (school facilities funding and income tax cuts). This was the tenth iteration of fixes for this bill. This policy was the Governor’s top priority this session, and this week, we saw the swift introduction and passage of HB 766. Other last-minute bills were HB 741 - fixes to Idaho Launch, and a final adjustment for DOPL’s licensing exceptions process came in SB 1429aaH.
Amidst the last hours of Wednesday, the House and Senate continued battling in the traditional power struggle in Idaho's legislative process. The unique and uncomfortable part of this was the factions in the Senate that broke out. This was not ideology-based (Freedom Caucus vs. Main Street) but instead included Chairmen and members of the Senate fighting leadership in a closed-door Senate Majority Caucus meeting that went on for hours.
While fights in the caucus can be a normal part of the process, this was different. We don’t know the details, as caucus meetings are private, but we do know that the Senate Majority returned to the Senate Floor Wednesday night despondent, and the caucus results were virulent. Attacks on leadership and the direction of the Senate seemed to have occurred similarly to what we saw in January in the House. The Senate, traditionally the more deliberative body, didn’t change leadership in the last hours of the session Wednesday. The infighting and power struggles are a brutal part of the session this year and a departure from the decorum and statesmanship of previous legislatures. Something we hope is a rare one-off and not the new normal in the Idaho Legislature.
The job of legislators isn’t easy and certainly hasn’t been fun this year. Yet, some good things were accomplished by the Legislature for Idaho this session, along with disappointments and setbacks. As we begin to wrap up the session, we are already in discussions for next year and know we will be back in nine months to begin again. While they recess and begin preparations for their campaigns for the Primary Election in May 2024, we are preparing for them to convene again next week to hopefully wrap up and look forward to meeting with you to plan out the rest of the spring and beyond.
As we enter week fourteen of the 2024 Idaho Legislative Session, we are taking a moment to again to thank you for your trust in us and for the privilege to represent you. The Idaho Legislative process is often emotional and dynamic, and we strive to manage it well and remain positive and helpful. We also hope the reporting and work we do is a value add for you. We are always willing to consider how best to improve our efforts and process to serve you. Sincerely, thank you!
