The House has approved HJM 26, commending and congratulating all sides in the Basque homeland for moving toward peace, on a unanimous 66-0 vote. But House Speaker Bruce Newcomb had to caution after the vote that he still remembered the last time the House passed a resolution on the Basque homeland. “I turned the chamber over to Pete Cenarrusa and Dave Bieter, they talked Basque,” he recalled, and the House voted – “Only to find out that we had declared war on Spain.” That measure caused a diplomatic flurry, so Newcomb was leery this time, but said he was lobbied by former longtime Idaho Secretary of State Cenarrusa once again, and he couldn’t say no. “I’m hopeful that it is just a memorial of encouragement,” Newcomb told the House. “If there’s anything in there that people might read that we’re declaring was on Spain and France, please ignore it, because we’re not.”

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