Two measures regarding amending the U.S. Constitution that had earlier passed the House died in the Senate State Affairs Committee this morning. After much testimony, the Senate panel narrowly rejected HB 67 from Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, to set requirements for Idaho delegates to an Article 5 constitutional convention. Committee members questioned whether the requirements were workable. “I realize we’re lawyering this,” Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, told Luker; both are lawyers. Davis said the measure attempts to avoid a “runaway convention,” but he said, “I have at least a dozen constitutional scholars … and folks I do trust that tell me it is impossible to avoid a runaway convention.”

Another measure, HJM 1, a non-binding memorial to Congress calling for proposing a “Regulation Freedom Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution to require a congressional vote whenever a quarter of members of the House or Senate object to a federal regulation, died for lack of a motion. That measure, from Rep. Thomas Dayley, R-Boise, had earlier passed the House on a 54-16 vote. HB 67, the "Limited Convention Act," had passed the House on a close 38-32 vote.