BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Lawmakers in the Idaho state House continued their struggle Thursday to pass legislation to trim the governor’s powers and increase their own during an emergency such as a pandemic.
The House State Affairs Committee killed a third version of a bill and sent a fourth version to the full House despite doubts from businesses, food producers and Idaho-based agribusiness giant J.R. Simplot Company.
The committee took public testimony on the third version, but opted not to hold a hearing on the fourth version that wasn’t made public until after the meeting ended. Instead, the committee voted to send it directly to the full House after killing a motion by a Democratic lawmaker to hold a hearing on the latest version.
Lawmakers are angry with Republican Gov. Brad Little’s response to the pandemic.
Little issued a temporary stay-at-home order in late March as patients overwhelmed some hospitals and healthcare workers became sick. Healthcare facilities feared running out of protective equipment. The lockdown allowed the situation to stabilize and the state to bring in masks and other equipment.
But the restrictions angered lawmakers, as did the classification of some workers as “non-essential” and the banning of gatherings. All restrictions are currently lifted, though the governor recommends limiting gatherings to 50 or less.
Lawmakers say Idaho governors have too much power during declared emergencies and that lawmakers need to find a way to apply legislative oversight.
But lawmakers have misfired so far with previous legislation. Some of the measures would have immediately ended Little’s pandemic emergency declaration and cut off more than $20 million in federal aid triggered by the declaration.
“This does not prohibit a governor from being able to declare an emergency,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Jason Monks. “But it does allow the Legislature to be involved if the process goes for a long time.”
He also said that “we have made sure that the funding aspect associated with disasters does not get impacted.”
The bill would allow a governor to declare an emergency and extend it past 60 days, but only to ensure federal funding continues. The bill would require any restrictions accompanying a governor’s order to expire after 60 days unless renewed by the Legislature. Currently, emergency declarations last 30 days and a governor can simply renew them.
The latest version of the bill allows the part-time Legislature to extend an emergency for 365 days.
J.R. Simplot Company, the Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry, and the Food Producers of Idaho testified in opposition to the third version of the bill. They feared that federal disaster aid could be cut off because lawmakers would drop the ball if they were in charge of renewing emergency declarations rather than the governor.
“Emergencies don’t necessarily occur when you all are normally in session January through March,” Elizabeth Criner of the J.R. Simplot Company told lawmakers, citing concerns that rural areas could lose federal aid. “They occur in other times. And the way this is drafted, you would need to come in in order to ensure that those continue.”
The part-time Legislature typically meets from January through March.
Alex LeBeau, president of the Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry, testified against the third version but said the group didn’t have a position on the latest version and likely wouldn’t until next week. By then, though, the bill will likely be on the House floor.
“I think that we will still have some similar concerns,” he said.
The pandemic is a statewide emergency. But most declared emergency declarations in Idaho are localized and the result of floods, wildfires or extreme weather events. Some of those local declarations persist for years as federal money helps residents recover. Lawmakers are trying to encompass those extremes with the latest version of the legislation. But LeBeau had doubts.
“We’re not entirely sure the Legislature wants to be involved in regional or even localized issues,” LeBeau said. “If it’s a statewide emergency, then we should have a different pathway and the Legislature should be involved. But to have the Legislature involved, the way we read this, in almost every other type of emergency that’s out there, that concerns us a great deal.”
But some of the lawmakers were focused on the Little’s actions in the pandemic.
“What’s important here is that the public has reacted, and we’re reacting to the public’s concerns about what happened and how the gentleman on the second floor (the governor) reacted to this supposed, purported emergency,” said Republican Rep. Vito Barbieri.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reports that about 166,000 residents have been infected by the virus and that nearly 1,800 have died.
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