BOISE, Idaho — At some point this year, the Idaho House will return to Boise to at least formally adjourn for the year. That call to return is made by House leadership.
To find out when will that be and if it is possible that lawmakers will consider passing new legislation, The 208 spoke with Rep. Scott Bedke, the Speaker of the House.
Bedke said the House leadership is currently weighing options for a return before the end of 2021.
“People want to get finished with their vacations here in August and then you have the Thanksgiving and Christmas time after that, we will find a time in there where we can come in, as the original plan that we set back in May, and close up the books,” Bedke said.
Bedke said there have been plenty of conversations about possibly coming back into the session. However, he noted an interesting consensus between lawmakers about the requirements to do that.
“I’m in receipt of a bunch of phone calls and emails from the members and they would kind of like for us to follow the process that will be on the ballot next November, which is when we hit 60% of the House and 60% of the Senate wanting to come back in on a specific issue then critical mass is reached and we would come in. That has not happened at this point. There is a lot of chatter, but the threshold has not been met,” Bedke said.
As Bedke alluded to, Idahoans will get to vote next fall on if they think Idaho lawmakers should be able to call themselves back into session for specific topics to consider.
A topic some lawmakers have pushed recently is the decision by private medical employers to require their employees to get a COVID vaccine to maintain employment. Some Republicans have called for Bedke and the House leadership to call lawmakers back to consider action on the topic, but Bedke said he doesn’t think most Idahoans agree.
“If you were to take a poll of Idahoans and ask them whether or not they wanted politicians in the middle of their private businesses, I think the answer would be no, and maybe more emphatically than that,” Bedke said.
Bedke said he understands there are lawmakers who personally disagree with the decision but that lawmakers have a set role.
“These hospitals are private businesses, would I run them as they have chosen to run? No, I wouldn’t. I agree with the other hospitals in the state that the mandate for a vaccination at this point is a bridge too far but that is not our decision, that is the administrators at those hospitals, the CEOs of St. Luke’s and Saint Alphonsus and Primary Health. That is their decision and it’s between them and their employees,” Bedke said.
Some Republican lawmakers have asserted in recent days that because of the state and federal money hospitals receive, like Medicaid expenditures, they are a quasi-public agency that should not be allowed to tie employment to vaccine status. They believe lawmakers need to return to address the situation.
“They are entitled to their narrative, but they are not entitled to the facts. The facts are, there is a contract between the employer and the employee, and we have always stopped short of getting in the middle of that and I believe that is the best course forward,” Bedke said.
When the Idaho House does return this year, they will also consider recommendations from the House Ethics Committee to censure and remove a committee assignment from Rep. Priscilla Giddings.
The committee unanimously found that Giddings acted in a manner unbecoming of a lawmaker after she shared a link that included the name and photo of a statehouse staffer that was allegedly raped by a now-former lawmaker.
For weeks, Giddings and her supporters have directly said that they think Bedke and house leadership used the ethics investigation to hurt her run for lieutenant governor, a race Bedke is also in. Simply put, Bedke explained that is not the case and that the House leadership has stayed out of the situation, per rules.
“We are completely removed from that and we will have a vote just like the other members of the body, but we are outside of the process despite the allegations and assertions to the contrary. Those are completely false, that is a narrative that is not consistent wit the facts and I believe everyone knows that, but it makes great political theater, that’s what you are seeing being played out,” Bedke said.
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