Session Report

Week Eleven March 23-27, 2026

Monday, March 23.

I had no morning committee today. The floor session started at 10:30 AM, and we addressed 8 of the 21 bills on the third reading calendar. H910 was returned to committee. HR27 was held for a day. Of the remaining six, only one generated any debate. That was H842, which addressed the limitations on property tax growth imposed by HB389 (2021). Among other things, the bill deliberately loosens the 2021 growth cap from 8 % to 15 % for cities < 30,000 and their fire/ambulance districts. Even though the extra revenue must be “covered” by the value of new construction, this still gives local governments a larger permanent revenue tool without voter approval. The bill failed 28-41-1. I voted against. The House recessed at 11:50 AM to reconvene at 3 o’clock this afternoon.

My afternoon committee was Business, and we heard one bill, H706. This legislation would amend the Idaho Building Code Act to authorize local governments to allow certain apartment buildings to be served by a single exit stairway. Certain life safety and design standards would have to be met first, though. The bill was sent to the floor with a do-pass recommendation on a 14-2 vote. Some fire officials testified that they thought the safety recommendations were not enough. This type of legislation has been passed in 19 other states, including Montana and Texas. This legislation does not mandate, as Montana’s does, but rather allows cities to move in this direction.

The afternoon session dealt with 15 bills on the Third Reading Calendar and two bills on the Second Reading Calendar. From the Third, one, HR27, was returned to the committee. Nine bills passed with supermajorities. S1382, which is an enhancement appropriation for the Department of Fish and Game, failed 32-36-2. I voted against it. Senate Joint Memorial 111, which supported the retention of public lands in Idaho, passed on a voice vote. Senate Concurrent Resolution 124, which supported wildlife crossings, passed on a voice vote.

From the second reading calendar, H913 passed 59-9-12 It amends existing law to revise provisions regarding Medicaid Expansion eligibility. I voted in favor. And H934, passed 44-24-2. This bill made some technical changes and amended existing law to revise provisions regarding the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit. I voted in favor.

Tuesday, March 24.

I had no morning committee today. The morning floor session, which started at 11 AM, fielded four bills. All four passed with supermajorities. S1288, which added to existing law to provide for the establishment of the Idaho High Needs Student Fund, passed 49-21-0. The debate centered on the fact that the money was taken from driver’s ed. And was touted as a one-time transfer. The problem is that this bill creates a new fund that must be funded on an ongoing basis. The debate also mentioned that regardless of what we did, the bill would be paid. I voted against.

My afternoon committee was Local Government. We heard H0892. This legislation would help counties when they must fill a vacated County Commissioner position by changing the list of nominees from the current three to one, two, or three, depending on the county’s population. This would help the smallest counties in selecting the best replacement. Currently, County Central committees meet to fill a county board of commissioners’ vacancy and provide a list of three names to the governor, who then chooses one to fill the position. This new legislation would require a list of one nominee for counties with a population of less than 50,000, a list of two nominees for counties with a population of 50,000 to 100,000, and a list of three nominees for counties with a population greater than 100,000.

Wednesday, March 25.

Again, no morning committee, but we had 12 new bills to read this morning that were added to the Second reading calendar.

The morning session, which began at 10 AM this morning, dealt with bills from both the Third Reading Calendar and the Second Reading Calendar. From the Third Reading Calendar, we had two bills to deal with. S1330aa dealt with raising the ceiling that litigants have in Small Claims Court from $5000 to $15,000. A relatively simple bill that had unanimous support. SCR123 is a resolution that memorialized the findings of the Legislature and would support recognizing 2026 as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. An interesting point of debate was brought up that this was a United Nations-driven resolution. While most, if not all, of the legislators agreed with the heart of the resolution, many could not sign on simply because of its linkage with the United Nations, which is anything but an agency that genuinely unites nations. The resolution would normally have been a voice vote, but one of the debaters asked for a roll call vote. The resolution passed 39-28-3. I voted against. It should be noted that if anyone goes online and looks at the Third Reading Calendar for today, you will see two bills ahead of the first one we dealt with and one in between. The first one we dealt with was moved to the top by unanimous consent, and we dealt with the resolution because it was timely.

At this point, we moved to the Second Reading Calendar. It was apparent that leadership wished to get quite a few of the Second Reading Calendar bills passed, but we only accomplished one due to extensive debate. H940 would amend existing law to revise provisions regarding the Idaho Digital Learning Academy (IDLA). Some of the debate indicated that those speaking had not carefully read the bill because they debated as though they were concerned that the bill was doing away with IDLA. In fact, that was completely incorrect, and an interesting mix of debaters defended the bill, which went on to pass 48-22-0. I voted in favor. I can detail some of the concerns. As I mentioned, some were concerned that the bill did away with the program. It did not. Second, there was concern that it was an across-the-board 50% cut. This was incorrect also. The cuts would be targeted at institutions that are misusing the program. Double dipping, misusing funds in numerous ways, including paying for children to sit in classrooms and being taught by an online instructor when they could’ve been taught by the teacher in the classroom. School districts that were not at all rural were using it in an incorrect way. Many of these were brought up by legislators from across the aisle who voted in favor of the bill. The general consensus among those in favor of the bill was that, after five iterations attempting to address everyone’s concerns, this bill would put IDLA back on track to accomplish the purposes for which it was created. At this point, the House recessed until 3:30 this afternoon.

My afternoon Business Committee addressed five bills. Several bills had been amended, and so you will see the standard descriptive letter/number followed by two lowercase a’s. That means “as amended”. S1354aa would ensure that homeowners may construct accessory dwelling units, and it would prevent cities from banning or unreasonably restricting them. After much debate in the committee, it was sent to the floor with a do-pass recommendation on a vote of 10 in favor and six opposed. I voted in favor. S1297aa would establish safety standards for conversational artificial intelligence services. It would require operators to adopt protocols for responding to both adult and minor users. Where an operator has actual knowledge or reasonable certainty that a user is a minor, the bill mandates a persistent disclaimer of AI interaction. It also prohibits “gamification” intended to encourage excessive engagement and requires measures to prevent sexually explicit content. The bill also requires an operator to provide parental supervision tools. It was sent to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. The third bill, H937, would permit multifamily and mixed-use housing on religious lands and prevent local governments from imposing discretionary zoning barriers or mandates that deter religious institutions from engaging in mixed-use or housing development. It would establish ministerial approval procedures and enforcement mechanisms while preserving core health, safety, and infrastructure regulations. The sponsor was unavailable, so the bill was held in committee. S1352aa would remove red tape discouraging first-time ownership by enabling small-lot starter home subdivisions on residential land, removing local zoning barriers that prevent compact single-family development. It sets reasonable state standards for lot size, frontage, setbacks, and density, while preserving health, safety, environmental, and infrastructure requirements. It was sent to the floor 10-6 with a do-pass recommendation. I voted in favor.

The first bill heard in the afternoon session was S1348aa from the Third Reading Calendar. There was no debate, and the bill passed 66-0-4.

From there, we moved to the Second Reading Calendar. We handled 11 bills on the Second Reading Calendar. H892 was returned to the sponsor. There were three voice votes on resolutions or memorials, all unanimous. Of the remaining bills, two did not pass with supermajorities. Senate Bill 1350 amends and adds to existing law to provide certain provisions regarding cash rounding. This would address the lack of pennies issue that businesses will be facing in the near future. It was a bit confusing, but it did make sense. I understood it and voted yes. The bill passed 44-23-3. H942 is related to the appropriation from the Idaho Millennium Income Fund. The funding in this bill was directed to uses that were not normally targeted by these monies. The bill passed 45-22-3. I voted against.

Thursday, March 26.

Revenue and Taxation, my morning committee, heard one bill. H944, which would revise the distribution of monies in the Liquor Account. It provides for an additional transfer of $5 million annually to the Idaho Law Enforcement Fund, whose funds are intended to support Project Choice and enhance the recruitment and retention of Idaho State Police troopers. I received numerous concerned emails from county officials because these funds normally go to the counties. There was great dismay that losing those funds would impact the counties very negatively. After presentations and quite a bit of debate, a motion was made to send to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. That was followed by a substitute motion suggested by the sponsor to send the bill to general orders for amendment. The substitute motion passed 12 in favor, and three against. I voted in favor.

The morning floor session had one bill on the Third Reading Calendar, and it was held. We then proceeded to the Second Reading Calendar, which had 18 bills. Upon suspending the rules to address the Second Reading Calendar, we began to wade through them. The first six bills passed with either supermajorities or unanimously. S1417 was an enhancement budget for the Department of Parks and Recreation. It was a 35.9% increase, and I voted against it. It passed 39-30-1. H788aaS (that means it was amended in the Senate) would add to the existing law establishing provisions regarding Medicaid prior authorization exemptions for certain preceptorships. Physicians practicing in primary care, psychiatry, or obstetrics and gynecology who provide at least 360 hours of qualifying preceptorship in a calendar year, with at least 60percentof those hours occurring in qualified rural areas, are eligible for a twelve-month exemption from prior authorization requirements for medically necessary services billed to Idaho Medicaid managed care plans and state-contracted insurers. This seemed an improper use of statutory power in picking and choosing winners in this type of situation. The first government rule, prior authorization, created problems that another government rule attempted to fix. The bill passed 39-30-1. I voted against. H951 was an appropriation to the office of the Atty. Gen. is especially targeted towards helping his campaign against Internet crimes against children. It is one of the few enhancements I voted for. It failed 33-37-0.

The final bill of the morning was S1249aa, which added to the existing law to establish a provision regarding hearing loss screening. It was a mandate with no exemptions that would force parents into hearing loss screenings of newborns, no matter where the child was born. I voted against. The bill passed 37-32-1. At this point, the house recessed to 3 PM. The majority leader explained to us that we would be looking at a “Suspension Calendar” in the afternoon session. The “suspension calendar” (or more accurately, the suspension of the rules) in the Idaho Legislature is a procedural mechanism used by leadership to expedite the passage of legislation. It allows the House or Senate to bypass normal, lengthy committee processes or floor debate procedures, typically to pass non-controversial or time-sensitive bills quickly. Most of the bills on today’s suspension calendar were bills we had seen before, and that had been amended. But not all of them.

The House reconvened at 3 PM. There were 13 bills on the suspension calendar that we addressed, and 12 of them passed by supermajorities. S1352aa would add to the existing law to establish provisions regarding starter home subdivisions. Specifically, the legislation removes red tape discouraging first-time home ownership by enabling small-lot starter home subdivisions on residential land, removing local zoning barriers that prevent compact single-family development. It sets reasonable state standards for lot size, frontage, setbacks, and density, while preserving health, safety, environmental, and infrastructure requirements. The bill passed 36-34-0. I voted in favor.

Friday, March 27.

I had no morning committee today; the floor session started at 10:30 AM. We had four bills. Two of them passed by supermajorities. S1397, which would amend and add to existing law to provide that wastewater corporations may be a public utility, failed on the floor 18-51-1. There was a fair amount of debate. The fact that the state would be taking over the oversight of a large swath of private industry did not sit well with many legislators. The arguments in favor were unpersuasive, and ended with only 11 Republicans out of 64 voting in favor. I contacted a wastewater manager who stated that they already have significant oversight by DEQ and the health department. They were adamant that this would be a major difficulty and unwelcome, as well as unnecessary.

The appropriations bill for the Secretary of State, H952 passed 67-0-3. I voted in favor. S1426, an enhancement appropriation for ITD, added nearly a hundred million dollars to an already nearly billion-dollar budget. ITD is an appropriate state agency, and its maintenance budget should have yielded everything they needed to get done this year. It passed 50-18-2. I voted against.

Upon recess at about 11:50 AM, I went to my Business Committee meeting. We heard three bills, two of which were just informational. H945 would establish the AI Medical Services Act, creating a state licensure framework for artificial intelligence systems that deliver clinical health care services to patients. It would establish the Board of Autonomic Medical Practice within the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses. It was held in committee, subject to the call of the chair. H947 was legislation that would prohibit the purchase of single-family homes in the state of Idaho by REITS (Real Estate Investment Trusts), and corporations registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The idea would be to prohibit institutional investors from purchasing or acquiring title/ownership/control of single-family homes and would require divestiture within 180 days of acquiring control. This bill was also held in committee. The final bill, S1247, sought to create the Idaho E-Verify Act, requiring all public agencies and state and local levels of government to implement the use of the federal E-Verify program for the hiring of new employees. Private employers a do business with the state and local government, if they have 150 or more employees and contracts valued at $100,000 or more, would also have to use the federal E-Verify program for hiring of their new employees. A motion to send the bill to general orders was made, seeking to allow for amendments. Then, a substitute motion was made to send the bill to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. And finally, an alternate substitute motion was made to hold the bill in committee.

One of the committee members requested a roll call vote. The motions were voted on, starting with the last one made. The alternate substitute motion to hold in committee failed 4 in favor, 14 against. The substitute motion to send the bill to the floor with a do-pass recommendation failed, 4 in favor, 14 opposed. And the first motion to send to general orders passed, 13 in favor, 5 opposed. I voted no on the first two and yes on the last one.

The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent in a “hurry up and wait” situation. As we waited for potentially bills coming over from the Senate to be voted on. After waiting about an hour, we adjourned until Monday. Throughout the end of the week, we were given several different options that may come to pass regarding the end of the session. We were told that we would be sent home on Friday (today) to come back on Wednesday of next week. What was finally settled upon is adjournment today, back in session Monday morning.

A final note, my Restroom, Changing room, protection bill passed the Senate today, 28-7, and will be sent to the Gov. for signature.