The House has just voted 54-15 – with all 14 House Democrats plus Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, voting no – to return HB 354, the IRS tax conformity bill, to the House Revenue & Taxation Committee. Scott was among three members of the committee who voted against the bill because it removes now-voided language requiring same-sex married couples to recalculate their Idaho taxes and file separate state returns; that language was added in 2014, but since then, Idaho’s ban on same-sex marriage has been overturned in court, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide.

“There has been some objection to this particular piece of legislation,” House Rev & Tax Chairman Gary Collins, R-Nampa, told the House. “We have been working on trying to get some type of a consensus. We think we have that, a new RS, and with that I hope that you would support the committee system and return this bill to the committee.”

Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, objected. “This body is responsible to respond to the U.S. Constitution,” he said. “The arguments that we’re seeing from folks in the pressure-point emails that we’re getting is not what this legislation is about.” Lawmakers have been receiving strident emails charging that the tax conformity bill is unconstitutional because it would delete the 2014 language about same-sex couples. Though Idaho hasn’t repealed its constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, it’s been invalidated by the courts and can’t legally be enforced, a Deputy Idaho Attorney General Phil Skinner told the Rev & Tax Committee when it heard the bill. The panel then voted 13-3 in favor of it.

After today's House vote, Scott told the Associated Press, "I was ready to vote on the bill today."