Legislature To Withdraw Limits On Initiatives

Idaho House Speaker Mike Simpson told the Idaho Press Club Wednesday a proposed constitutional amendment to ban anti-hunting initiatives will be withdrawn.

The legislation is being pulled because it attracted so much opposition from groups such as the Idaho Farm Bureau and National Rifle Association, Simpson told journalists at a Boise gathering.

His comments came as a Moscow, Idaho group was preparing to offer to withdraw a controversial ballot initiative that prompted the bill. The initiative seeks to overhaul black bear hunting regulations.

The group said it would withdraw the initiative, which hasn’t yet qualified for the ballot, if the Idaho Fish and Game Commission makes at least one of the three changes it wants. The group wants the commission to eliminate bait hunting, the use of hounds to hunt bears or the spring bear season.