Session Report
Week Ten March 16-20, 2026
Monday, March 16.
I had no morning committee today, and just a reminder of how that works, there are even days and odd days committees at the 1:30 time, and then there are committees that meet daily in the mornings, and some did meet as needed. The Business Committee meets on odd days at 1:30 PM, and the Local Government Committee meets on even days at 1:30 PM. And the Revenue and Taxation Committee meets daily at 9 AM. As the session rolls on, some of the daily committees don’t have to meet every day. And so, you have probably noticed numerous times when I have mentioned it my morning committee (Revenue and Taxation) has not met.
The 10:30 AM floor session today handled 13 bills. The first, H811, was held to the next day. And the second-to-last, H819, was sent to general orders.
In between that, seven of the bills passed with supermajorities. My bill, H752, the Restroom, Changing Room Protection Bill, passed 54-15-1. Of course, I voted in favor. This bill was necessitated by the situation that occurred in the Sandpoint YMCA, where a biological man was occupying the women’s changing room. The city council, years ago, had enacted an ordinance that allowed this kind of thing. When the situation occurred and was reported to the police, the city Council removed that ordinance (there was quite a bit more that went on, but this is the gist of it), and I was asked if I would deal with this in the legislature by members of the city government as well as numerous citizens. As I dug into it, I discovered that this kind of thing was happening all over the country, indeed all over the world, and women were either reporting it and finding little relief or, fearful of retaliation or inaction, not reporting it. The debate centered around the concern for certain classes of people, but this bill had nothing to do with that. It was strictly about requiring people to use the bathroom of their biological sex. Some debate expressed concern about law enforcement agencies making odd requests. One was concerned that they had to determine what a “dire need” was. These kinds of things are dealt with at the arrest level by officers of the law every day. The second concern was that the Sheriffs Association requested that I add language to the bill that stipulated that the person violating the woman’s space refused to immediately depart when asked to do so. This is unprecedented in law; the indecent exposure act doesn’t require anything like that, and this is simply a strengthening of that very act.
The second bill that generated a bit of controversy was H875, which required that the Legislative Services Office provide the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee with a calculated reduction from the Gov.’s budget document. The bill passed 35-34-1. I voted in favor.
HJM18, a joint memorial urging the United States Congress to prohibit unauthorized geoengineering and atmospheric modification activities conducted over the State of Idaho without state approval, public disclosure, or transparency, passed 39-29-2. I voted yes. At this point, the House recessed until 3 PM.
My afternoon committee today was Local Government. We had a hearing for one bill, H660. This bill would add a new section to Chapter 30, Title 67, Idaho Code, to require state and local law enforcement agencies to verify and record the immigration status and nationality of arrested individuals in the administration of criminal justice. The bill establishes reporting requirements, including biannual public reports, and authorizes the withholding of state funding for noncompliance.
Law enforcement consistently misunderstood the bill, thinking that everyone was required to verify and record immigration status and nationality. The bill was written such that “all law enforcement agencies in the performance of the administration of criminal justice, shall verify and record the immigration status and nationality of any arrested individual.” They took it to mean that city police, County Sheriffs, etc., all had to report immigration status. The bill is written so that in the “administration of criminal justice”, the reporting gets done. Most local law enforcement, especially city police turn their prisoners over to the county jail where the booking and reporting is done. So this exempts the city police from the required reporting, as they are only the arresting agency. The agency that performs the detention, pretrial release, posttrial release, prosecution, adjudication, correctional supervision, or rehabilitation actually does the reporting. So, in most cases it would be the Sheriff’s office. This was covered in the definition section. After an attempt to hold in committee, which failed 7-8, the bill was sent to the floor with a do-pass recommendation, 8-7. I voted in favor.
The afternoon session on the House floor covered one bill and one House Concurrent Resolution on the third reading calendar, and seven bills on the Second Reading Calendar. S1373 was moved to the top of the third reading calendar for the afternoon. This bill relates to the maintenance appropriation for Economic Development for 2027. It passed 54-15-1. I voted in favor.
At this point, we moved to the Second Reading Calendar. There were seven bills, and we were able to deal with all of them. All of them passed with a super majority.
Tuesday, March 17.
The House Revenue and Tax Committee met this morning. We dealt with three bills. The first was H0861. I will let the Statement of Purpose explain itself:
“Currently, local nonprofit organizations that have as their primary purpose the promotion of travel and conventions (chamber of commerce) may apply for grants from Idaho’s bed tax. This legislation allows Universities to also apply for the grants to promote economic development within the state.”
It seemed to most of us on the committee, and the vote bore this out, that removing the funding from the original targets and possibly giving some of it to the Universities was improper. A motion was made to send the bill to the floor with a do-pass recommendation, and it failed on a voice vote. The second bill was H0885, which clarifies who qualifies for the homestead exemption and provides for using the homestead address as the correct address for anyone running for office. Several others and I saw a number of problems with this bill, including the retroactive date, which could very well run afoul of a candidate who had filed for office under the old rules and would run afoul of the new. It also seemed preferential that a renter had to provide other identification than a homeowner’s exemption. This seemed to expand government gatekeeping on who can run for office, with the tax commission findings influencing candidacy without full due process. The bill was sent to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. I voted against. The final bill was S1345, which sought to reduce costs through utilizing secure electronic communications as an option for taxpayer communication should a taxpayer opt into that. The anticipated savings are about $300,000 a year. This was sent to the floor with a do-pass recommendation, and I voted for it.
The floor session handled 10 bills; the first two, H811 and HR23, were held to the next day. The first bill up was my church/worship center trespass bill. This was bill number S1296. From the SOP: “This legislation recognizes a specific criminal trespass offense for entering or remaining on the premises of a church or house of worship while the individual’s presence is clearly not permitted. To be convicted, an individual must also be proven to possess the specific intent to intimidate, harass, or disrupt a religious service or assemblage.” The bill passed 70-0-0.
All but two of the bills remaining passed with supermajorities. S1271aa, affectionately dubbed “The Rat Bill”, sought to deal with an infestation of rats in the Treasure Valley. The debate centered around the idea that this should not be a state issue but rather a local issue. The bill failed 32-38-0. I voted against.
The second bill that generated quite a bit of debate was S1340aa. This would amend existing law to require drivers to drive in the right-hand lane on multilane highways unless passing and to provide penalties for driving in the left-hand lane of a controlled access highway and impeding the flow of traffic. Concern was raised that signage doesn’t seem to work, multiple lane traffic flow would be confusing, for example, 3 lane traffic. The bill failed 29-41-0. I voted against. After handling Senate Concurrent Resolution 119, which passed unanimously by voice vote as it had no funding attached, the House recessed until 3 PM this afternoon.
The House reconvened just after 3 PM for the afternoon session. We had 12 bills to deal with; H725 and H660 were held to the following day. Of the remaining 10, seven passed with supermajorities. S1257, which amends existing law to establish provisions regarding visitation and termination of parental rights, passed 44-24-2. I voted against. My concerns were simply that the Department of Health and Welfare acts as prosecutor, judge, and jury in the initial alleged substantiation of abuse, then hands that finding to the court as presumptive evidence. This is a conflict and blurs executive and judicial power, and it expands the agency’s power without corresponding checks. I see it as a direct violation of the concept of “innocent until proven guilty”. So, in essence, this bill allows courts to pause, restrict, or deny visitation and even proceed toward termination based solely on the H&W substantiated claim, even if the parent is never charged, tried, or convicted in a criminal court. No criminal conviction is required anywhere in the bill. The second bill that drew some debate was S1269 regarding amending existing law to revise provisions regarding cloud seeding programs. As was made evidencing some of the debate, we are still seeking data to determine whether or not these cloud seeding programs truly work. It passed 40-28-2. I voted against.
Wednesday, March 18.
My morning committee, Revenue and Taxation, heard one bill, H0897. From the SOP:
This legislation amends the sales tax exemption for data centers in six key ways. This legislation does the following: 1) adds two additional criteria for qualification for the exemption related to energy and water consumption, 2) narrows the original sales tax exemption to only be applicable to the internal servers, 3 )allows for the sales tax exemption to only be available for 20 years for each project, 4) for data centers constructed after April 1, 2026 it modifies the property tax abatement provision in 63-4502 to prevent a tax shift, 5) requires the tax commission to report annually on the approximate amount of sales tax revenue not collected as a result of this policy, and 6) requires the tax commission to submit a report every 5 years to the legislature with an analysis of the effects of the exemption and data centers on Idaho’s economy, energy resources, and water resources. This legislation provides that data center projects currently under construction may continue with the sales tax exemption provisions (construction materials and internal server equipment) as originally provided when 63-3622VV was enacted in 2020; however, the new 20-year provision will apply to those projects currently under construction. resources, and water resources. This legislation provides that data center projects currently under construction may continue with the sales tax exemption provisions (construction materials and internal server equipment) as originally provided when 63-3622VV was enacted in 2020; however, the new 20-year provision will apply to those projects currently under construction.
Essentially, the bill removes some of the sweetheart provisions that were given to data centers to locate in Idaho and begins the process of getting them to pay their fair share in taxes. On a unanimous vote, the bill was sent to the floor with a do-pass recommendation.
The floor session at 10:30 AM had four bills on the Third Reading Calendar. H811 was returned to the sponsor and HR23 was held another day. H725 was a bill that would add cities to the state insurance pool. The debate was vigorous; those opposed, including myself, pointed out the difficulties that could occur with the problem of adverse selection. This is something that occurs when a person or entity is unable to secure insurance and becomes involved with a larger pool that has secured insurance and voluntarily lets them join. Throughout the nation, 25 or more states have experimented with this, and in almost every situation, the adverse selection drove costs up for everyone involved. The bill failed, 30-40-0. I voted against. The only other bill we dealt with this morning session was H660, which would require state and local law enforcement agencies to verify and record the immigration status and nationality of arrested individuals in the administration of criminal justice. The bill establishes reporting requirements, including biannual public reports, and authorizes the withholding of state funding for noncompliance. This is a commonsense approach to getting numbers so we know how many illegals are in Idaho. The law enforcement department that actually books and detains is the one that would do the reporting. This bill passed 40-30-0. I voted in favor. At this point, the house recessed until 3 PM.
In the afternoon session, there were 14 bills on the second reading calendar that we worked on. The Senate Joint Memorial was passed unanimously by voice vote. H885, the homestead property tax exemption bill, was returned to committee. H905 provided enhancements to the Office of the State Board of Education. This was a budget hike of $490,000. It passed 42-24-4. I voted against. H906 was an enhancement bill for community colleges. It sought to restore the rescissions of over $1 million. It passed 40-27-3, I voted against. H907 was an enhancement to the Division of Career Technical Education, which would partially restore the 2% rescission and had $1.877 million in enhancements. It passed 46-21-3. I voted against. H909 was an appropriations enhancement to the Office of the Secretary of State. It had enhancements that I believe could’ve appropriately been found in the maintenance budget excess. It failed 27-43-0. I voted against. The rest of the bills passed with either supermajorities or near supermajorities and had little or no controversy.
I had no afternoon committee.
Thursday, March 19.
This morning in the Revenue and Taxation Committee, we heard one bill, H842, which addresses limitations placed on the growth of property taxes by H389, passed in 2021. The debate centered around whether the increases were enough or if the quantified tax cap reductions and the removal of the forgone opportunity were valid. I was concerned that the reasonable constraint on taxing authority that H389 implemented should be removed. A motion was made to hold the bill until March 20 to allow one committee member to get more information. The substitute motion was made to send the bill to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. I voiced some of my concerns so that I would have the opportunity to change my vote on the floor with more information, and I voted with the majority to send the bill to the floor with a two-pass recommendation, knowing that it would have that same recommendation even if we waited until March 20. This is an often-used method for committee members to be able to change their vote on the floor should they come to a new understanding of the bill. The motion to send it to the floor passed 8-6.
The floor session started at 10:30 AM today. There were 14 bills on the Third Reading Calendar. Two were held over to the next day, the first House Joint Memorial 20 passed with a voice vote that was not unanimous but clearly enough to pass. I voted in favor. All but one bill passed with a super majority. Just as a reminder, this means that all of the bills received at least 47 votes. The least a bill received today other than the one I’m going to detail, was 61 in favor.
S1304 amended existing law regarding irrigation conduits and rights-of-way. The concern that I had was this allows for maintenance and operations to come onto private property without permission. It passed 45-25-0. I voted against. At this point, the house recessed to 3:00 PM.
My afternoon committee, House Business, dealt with four bills. S1285 would ensure that a homeschool high school diploma would be legally recognized as the equivalent of a standard high school diploma or GED for the purpose of obtaining various professional and occupational licenses in Idaho. This bill was sent to the floor unanimously with a do-pass recommendation. H841 would establish the “Idaho Prior Authorization Reform Act” to improve transparency, consistency, and timeliness in the prior authorization processes used by health insurers and utilization review organizations. The motion to send it to the floor with a do-pass recommendation failed 5 yes, 9 no. I saw it as regulatory expansion and growing government power over private business. I voted no. S1262 sought to update, clarify, and simplify one of the investment provisions in the insurance code. Current code allows insurance companies to invest funds in investments not otherwise specifically made eligible for investment in the insurance code and sets limits on the allowable percentage of those investments. This bill would maintain Idaho’s miscellaneous investment allowance at 10% of an insurer’s assets and remove the “lesser of” alternative limit of 75% of surplus excluding surplus notes. It was sent to the floor unanimously with a do-pass recommendation. The last bill, H898, shifts the administrative location of the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), which is an agency required by federal law, from the Idaho State Historical Society to the new Office of Species, Minerals, and Energy Coordination, within the Office of the Governor. Ostensibly, this would provide for better administrative efficiency, policy alignment, and improved coordination of permitting. After multiple testimonies, a motion was made to send it to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. Then a substitute motion was made to hold in committee. That motion failed on a voice vote. The motion to send it to the floor passed by voice vote.
The House reconvened at about 3:15 PM. We went immediately to the Second Reading Calendar, which has 30 bills. We dealt with nine bills. Seven of them passed with veto-proof majorities. H920 provided enhancements to the Health Education Programs organized under the State Board of Education. With an additional ongoing price tag of $900,000 and 2.5 new full-time personnel, the bill passed 47-22-1. I voted against. H921, an enhancement to the State Department of Education with an ongoing increase of $248,200 and a one-time increase of $269,600, passed 48-21-1. I voted against. H923, an enhancement to the Department of Maintenance with a $782,000 ongoing increase, passed 38-32-0. I voted against. H924 provided enhancements to the maintenance budget for the State Liquor Division of $1.6 million. It passed 46-24-0. I voted against. H925, enhancements to the Judicial Branch budget of $4.066 million passed 52-17-1. I voted against.
Friday, March 20.
My morning committee, Revenue and Taxation, heard one bill. H934, which is a cleanup bill specifically clarifying the responsibilities of the State tax commission in adjudicating the parental choice bill from last year, H093. Language put to rest any concerns that the state tax commission would have had with understanding legislative intent. It was sent to the floor on a do-pass voice vote.
Today’s floor session had 23 bills on the Third Reading Calendar. H897 was held until Monday, H926 was as well, HR23 was returned to committee, HR27 was held, S1326aa was held (remember the aa script indicates “as amended”). Of the remaining bills, 14 passed with a supermajority vote. H930, which purported to be a campaign-finance bill, essentially micromanages how people run their campaigns. There are new mandates forcing dedicated bank accounts, fund segregation, investment restrictions, mandatory loan transfers, and shortened reporting times. There is no shift towards pure disclosure with minimal interference; in short, it’s a regulatory banquet. For about six seconds, it was a tie vote, which would have caused it to fail. Then someone voted for it, and so it passed 36-34-0. I voted against. S1381 was an enhancement bill for the Idaho State Lottery. It passed 36-34-0. I voted against. S1383 was an appropriation to the Division of Veterans Services. It passed 65-5-0. I voted in favor. S1385 was an enhancement to the Industrial Commission. It passed 36-34-0. I voted no. In the final funding bill on the Third Reading Calendar was S1386, an enhancement to the Commission of Pardons and Parole. It passed 49-21-0. I voted against.
From there, we went to the Second Reading Calendar, and we handled six bills, all of which passed with supermajorities. H933 was an enhancement to the Commission on Aging. It passed 47-22-1. I voted against. There was no significant debate on any of the remaining bills. And I had no afternoon committee meeting.