The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee today approved the budget recommendation from the Joint Millennium Fund Committee, including an array of one-time grants and two ongoing ones, but stopped short of endorsing the panel’s bid to stop handing out one-time grants next year and consider other uses…
After this morning’s tense fight in the House over Rep. Ron Nate’s bid to pull a bill out of the House Ways & Means Committee, Ways & Means Chairman Robert Anderst, R-Nampa, said, “He got the opportunity to make his case, and he got 13 votes.”...
An Idaho House panel on Tuesday spiked legislation to curb duplicate lawsuits over on-the-job asbestos exposure after opponents argued the proposal would limit victims' ability to recover losses. "I'm worried about those who will be coming after me. I know what they're facing, and it's not pretty," said Roy Bale, a former pipe fitter who filed...
The Idaho Department of Motor Vehicles is no longer allowing people to flash a big grin when they get their pictures taken for a new driver's license. DMV spokesman Jake Melder told the Idaho Statesman the change is due to a new facial recognition software designed to help stop identity theft. The no-smile policy...
Anti-motorcycle profiling legislation has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a voice vote, after motions to kill the bill or amend it both died for lack of a second. The House-passed bill, HB 123, now goes to the full Senate, and if it passes there,…
With no discussion or debate, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Comittee this morning voted unanimously, 20-0, for a budget for the state Department of Agriculture for next year that reflects a 40.2 percent increase in state general funds, largely because of a big boost to boat inspection stations...
Idaho’s Constitutional Defense Council voted unanimously today to pay $151,209.88 to Planned Parenthood for attorney fees and costs in Planned Parenthood v. Wasden, the federal lawsuit in which the group successfully challenged two 2015 anti-abortion laws that sought to ban the prescription of abortion-causing drugs…
An amended version of two different House-passed bills on dog racing – one allowing an exception from Idaho’s strict ban on dog racing for non-betting exhibition races at county fair side shows, and another allowing an exception for sled-dog racing and training – has passed…
Legislation to repeal two laws forbidding abortion-inducing drugs from being prescribed via telemedicine – after a court found the 2015 laws unconstitutional – passed the House today on a 52-18 vote. “Mr. Speaker, this may be the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in this...
After a tense debate, Rep. Ron Nate’s bid to call a resolution about hearing bills out of the House Ways & Means Committee has failed, as the House instead voted 57-13 in favor of Rep. Robert Anderst’s motion to excuse the committee, which Anderst chairs....
Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, has just formally asked for the House to call House Resolution 1 out of the Ways & Means Committee, under House Rule 45. That’s the proposal from Rep. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, to require that any bill that has at least 10…
The Legislature’s joint budget committee has voted 18-2 to put another $400,000 in state general tax funds into the Wolf Control Depredation Board next year to kill problem wolves – even though the board has been building up a big fund balance and already will...
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
