Lawmakers on the Legislature’s interim committee on purchasing laws have wrapped up four hours of discussions today, and set their next meeting for Jan. 14; they took votes on just two of the seven proposed bills they reviewed today, sending the other five back for revisions. When they’re done, the panel hopes to have a completely revamped state purchasing code, including new, more far-reaching ethics rules, training requirements for all state employees involved in purchasing and more.

“There will be, in my opinion, some substantial rewrites of sections,” said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, who serves on the joint committee. He said the goal is to make the statutes specific enough that people know exactly what they can and can’t do. “It’s a tough job to know what to do when you have language that is vague, or you could read it in several ways,” said Davis, an attorney.

He added, “Do we have the right policies? I don’t think we do right now. They were more than adequate in the 1970s when they were first enacted, but I don’t think they are today. The ways businesses procure products today are so substantially different.”

Some portions of the new sections lawmakers are debating were pulled from model purchasing statutes developed by the American Bar Association. Before the next meeting, they’re also gathering some information on some specific purchasing statutes in other states for consideration in Idaho’s rewrite. When done, the committee’s work will include a complete recodification of all of Idaho’s purchasing statutes into a new, single title; currently, they’re scattered throughout state law.