House Dems attempt to call minimum wage increase bill from committee, party-line vote shuts it down

House Democrats just made a stand on the floor of the House, attempting to call HB 400, the bill to raise the minimum wage, out of the House Ways & Means Committee, the leadership-dominated panel where it’s been sent to die without a hearing. The bid failed on a straight party-line vote, 56-14.

Rep. Sue Chew, D-Boise, citing House rules, moved to call the bill out of committee. House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, then moved to “excuse” the committee from reporting out the bill, meaning it would stay in the committee. That’s the motion that passed.

“Issues like this are critical to Idahoans,” Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, sponsor of HB 400, told the House. “The fact that HB 400 has not received any hearing or any up-or-down vote is a problem for us.” He noted the number of Idahoans living in poverty and said other states have raised their minimum wage; Idaho’s matches the federal minimum at $7.25 per house.

House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, noted that both houses have passed a bill to forbid local ballot measures or ordinances in Idaho to raise the minimum wage. “We’ve decided that only as a state and as a Legislature can we make any change in the minimum wage in the state of Idaho,” Rusche said.  “To not allow discussion of that, I think, is in error, and therefore I support the call for the bill.”

Moyle told the House, “We have a process here, and it’s the committee process. I think we need to be careful as we protect that process; that’s what makes it work. We start allowing motions like this to proceed, it’ll start causing more problems down the road.”

When House Speaker Scott Bedke said the matter was a “procedural motion,” Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, asked what a procedural motion is and where it is in the House’s rules. Bedke responded, “A procedural motion is a motion that potentially does not change the way you represent your constituency, it is about the management of the floor.”

Rusche, debating for a second time, then told the House, “The request was to support the process. And as the good gentleman from 14 (Moyle) said, the process is what makes things work here. Well, Mr. Speaker, I point out that the process is not working, that there are bills that are important to Idahoans that are not receiving a hearing, and that’s why the motion to excuse is probably not the best choice for the citizens of Idaho.”

Moyle responded, “I have a lot of bills that I want, too. But … there’s a process, there’s a committee process, a leadership process, it works, and the reason we have the process is not only to protect us but to protect our constituents and others. I have bills I want. I don’t always get my way, neither do the rest of you. What we have today … has worked for a long time.”

After the party-line vote, Bedke cautioned those in the public gallery, including an array of minimum wage-hike supporters, to avoid disrupting the House.

HB 400 would raise Idaho’s minimum wage to $8.25 an hour on July 1, 2016; and to $9.25 an hour on July 1, 2017.