This week, Sen. David Lent and Rep. Dustin Manwaring update us on medical education plans. Senate Assistant Minority Leader James Ruchti and House Assistant Majority Leader Josh Tanner discuss budgeting and end-of-session negotiations.

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Idaho Reports airs Friday at 8 p.m. on Idaho Public Television

Changes to 2024 parental rights law introduced

Lawmakers passed the Idaho Parental Rights Act last year intending to grant parents the right to make decisions over their children’s health care. The law prohibits children from receiving medical care, except in emergency situations, without parental consent.

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Adams nominated to federal Health and Human Services role in Trump administration

Idaho Capital Sun: President Donald Trump nominated Idaho’s new top health official to a role in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.

Alex Adams, who has been the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s Director since June 2024, is tapped to serve as the HHS assistant secretary for family support. Adams is the third Idahoan appointed to key Trump administration positions.

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Outstanding budgets extend the 2025 session

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has redrafted enhancement budgets that were voted down so far, and co-chair Rep. Wendy Horman told Idaho Reports they plan to pass an enhancement bill for every agency even if it ultimately contains no new spending.

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JFAC narrowly passes public defense budget

The State Public Defender’s Office’s $32.3 million budget narrowly made it out of committee with a 6-4 vote from the Senate members and a 6-4 vote from the House members. The budget asks for 17.96 new positions for onboarding at planned in-house public defense offices in Benewah, Elmore, Jerome, and Shoshone counties.

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House approves fire standard of care for utilities

Senate Bill 1183 would establish a standard of care in state law under which electric companies would not be held liable for wildfire-related damages if they have followed their individual wildfire mitigation plans, as approved by the state’s Public Utilities Commission.

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This week on the podcast:

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South of the Canadian Border

Logan Finney sits down with Sen. Jim Woodward to discuss progress on budgets and funding for public schools, as well as power companies' liability for fire damage and issues specific to Boundary and Bonner counties in Legislative District 1.

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‘You can report her, too!’ Activist targets Republican legislator with calls for ICE raids

InvestigateWest: Ryan Spoon, who moved to Boise from San Francisco in 2019 to work remotely as a loss prevention specialist, and Stephanie Mickelsen, a state legislator who is one of the biggest potato producers in southeast Idaho, are on opposite ends of the state's Republican Party. And immigration is a particularly incendiary flashpoint: Mickelsen argues migrants are an essential part of the agricultural economy, while Spoon portrays both undocumented immigrants and legal refugees as a sinister foreign invasion force.

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JFAC pushes to cut U of I, Boise State budgets

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Idaho Education News: A divided Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee voted to cut budgets by $2 million each for Boise State University and the University of Idaho. The cuts are not driven by fiscal necessity. It is a proposed one-time reduction that wouldn’t break Boise State, representing less than 1% of its $289.8 million budget. But JFAC’s Tuesday morning budget-cutting afforded lawmakers one more chance to express what they want in Boise State’s next president. Someone more like them, and less like outgoing BSU president Marlene Tromp, who is leaving for Vermont.

Tromp’s turbulent tenure ends where it began

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