Freshman Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, is on the House State Affairs Committee agenda this morning, along with Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, to present legislation on "state sovereignty." Barbieri said it's the "nullification" bill on national health care reform that's been discussed, but some changes to the proposed bill are in the works. "It may be that we're not going to be able to be on the agenda today," Barbieri said. "We've got a couple of changes that we've implemented that it may not be ready for the committee this morning."

Barbieri said it's the same bill that Sen.. Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth, has been working on. "We actually early on got together and merged the two so that they were identical," Barbieri said. The measure is "to nullify within Idaho's borders the, pretty much, the health care plan," he said. "I think we have carved out the Pell Grants and a couple of other things that the U.S. House has done when they put their repeal (bill) together." He added, "It's not as strong as Texas' bill, where there are criminal penalties to the state and federal employees who would attempt to implement despite the law, but it does pretty much bar state agencies from accepting or distributing money and it bars them from entering into agreements that would further the national health care plan." The bill also contains an emergency clause, making it take effect immediately upon passage.

Said Barbieri, "It's just a major issue that at least at this point we can take the lead on with the other states that are agreeing that the national health plan is overreaching."