Bill Would Reopen Food Testing Lab

Agriculture groups are working to reopen the state’s troubled Quality Assurance Laboratory in Twin Falls, but the first attempt ran into some resistance Wednesday in the House Ways and Means Committee.

However, the committee met again later and agreed to introduce the bill after Gov. Phil Batt said he supported the legislation. It was sent to the full House for a vote.

The testing lab on the College of Southern Idaho campus was opened as a way to guarantee the safety of Idaho food products. But Batt ordered it closed in December after reports that mismanagement had resulted in falsified test information, lack of industry support and illegal disposal of toxic substances.

Republican Sen. Laird Noh of Kimberly got Ways and Means to approve a plan to create a new commission to take control of the lab and lease it to a private company.

But House Democratic Floor Leader James Stoicheff of Sandpoint said he did not like rushing legislation through in the session’s final days.

But Stoicheff later went along after the bill was amended to make it clear the governor had full authority to appoint or fire members of the commission.