This week on the show, House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Wendy Horman discusses the legislature’s new budgeting process. Producer Ruth Brown gives an update on a pending execution and new death penalty legislation, and Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News covers the open meeting lawsuit over University of Phoenix meetings at the State Board of Education.

Idaho Reports airs Friday at 8 pm on Idaho Public Television.

This week at the statehouse:

Committee kills work requirement bill that would potentially jeopardize Medicaid expansion

On Thursday, the House Health and Welfare Committee held a bill that would have potentially jeopardized Medicaid expansion and added work requirements for able-bodied recipients. Not all lawmakers who voted to hold the bill were against putting sideboards on Medicaid, but several had too many questions to move it forward.

READ MORE HERE

House passes fentanyl mandatory minimums bill

After an hour and a half of debate, the Idaho House of Representatives voted 55-13 in favor of a bill to add mandatory minimum prison sentences to law for trafficking fentanyl. A handful of conservative lawmakers joined the Democrats in voting against the bill.

READ MORE HERE

House committee approves bill declaring there are only two sexes or genders

The bill states that confusion and ambiguities regarding the definitions of male, female, sex, gender and related terms as "a biological truth" can hinder individual efforts to enjoy equal treatment under the law.

"It sends a clear message to thousands of trans, non-binary and intersex Idahoans that we are nothing," said one transgender person testifying. "Not even worthy of recognition."

READ MORE HERE

Bill to arm teachers clears House after lengthy debate

Rep. Ted Hill faced a barrage of questions before the House advanced his bill that would allow school staff with enhanced concealed carry permits to carry guns on the job. Ultimately, the House overwhelmingly supported the bill. Backers argued it would give teachers a chance to protect their classrooms in the minutes before police respond. Many lawmakers were skeptical of ceding local school board authority to regulate staff firearms.

READ MORE HERE

IR-File-Photos-1579-e1705516615457 image

Committee delays action on bill to make sex crimes against children punishable by death

The House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee voted to hold a bill that would make a sex crime against a child punishable by death in Idaho. The bill is modeled after a law that passed in Florida in 2023. The sponsor recognized it is currently unconstitutional to sentence a person to death for sexual abuse of a child, but pointed out all of the justices on the majority of that U.S. Supreme Court decision are no longer on the bench.

READ MORE HERE

Analysis: Making lewd conduct with a child punishable by death could be problematic

A legislative proposal that would make lewd conduct with a child under age 12 punishable by death could drastically increase the number of death penalty cases in Idaho. In 2022 alone, prosecutors filed 217 cases charging adults with lewd conduct with a child under 16, a crime that is currently punishable by up to life in prison.

READ MORE HERE

Follow online for updates throughout the week:

Commission of Pardons and Parole denies commutation recommendation for Thomas Creech

The Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole denied a commutation request for Thomas Creech, the state’s longest-serving man on death row. Without a recommendation, the governor cannot consider commuting his death sentence.

Creech, 73, has been on death row in Idaho since 1983 for the beating death of fellow inmate David Jensen, the fifth murder conviction on his record.

READ MORE HERE

Creech’s execution date scheduled Feb. 28

The death warrant for Creech's execution was issued Tuesday, the day after the Commission of Pardons and Parole announced its commutation denial. The Idaho Department of Correction confirmed it had the chemicals needed for an execution by lethal injection.

READ MORE HERE

Idaho Supreme Court upholds changes to administrative rulemaking process

The Idaho Supreme Court on Monday issued an opinion stating that recent changes to Idaho’s rulemaking process are constitutional. The Idaho State Athletic Commission and the Idaho Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses had argued the new law prevents the state's administrative agencies from adopting any enforceable rules until those rules have been pre-approved by the legislature.

READ MORE HERE

Podcast: Secretaries of State Don't Want to Decide Whether Trump Gets on the Ballot

artworks-uIzKPw7TDkZR34fw-TMGiFA-t500x500 image

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane joins Logan Finney this week to discuss legal action before the U.S. Supreme Court over whether former President Donald Trump is eligible to appear on the ballot in 2024. They also discuss McGrane's legislative session priorities, and a letter he and Attorney General Raúl Labrador issued to statehouse lobbyists regarding bribes and threats to elected officials.

WHEREVER YOU LISTEN TO PODCASTS

Help support our journalism:

The generous support of viewers like you makes it possible for us at Idaho Public Television to tell Idaho’s stories.

SUPPORT IDAHOPTV

Idaho Reports

1455 N Orchard St

Boise ID 83706-2239

(208) 373-7220

Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, the Friends of Idaho Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.