Idaho Legislature Adjourns for the Year

Posted by Zach Forster on April 15, 2024

Last week, the Idaho legislature officially adjourned for the year wrapping up miscellaneous items and addressing two vetoes from Governor Little in Senate Bill 1314a and Senate Bill 1323. If you attended the Idaho Day at the Capitol this year in January, you heard us talking about an anticipated short year in the legislature. In other words, there weren’t any “going home bills” or major partisan (Idaho partisan is defined as republican v. republican) fights that we anticipated. However, the legislature did hit some speed bumps in creating new processes and procedures for approving budgets, and this caused several delays throughout the session which ultimately led to the April adjournment.

Highlighting just a few major items this year starting with Senate Bill 1301, amendments to the Idaho Credit Union Act. Idaho credit unions worked tirelessly throughout the summer and fall creating legislation aimed at modernizing the Idaho Credit Union Act. Ultimately, we were successful and passed SB1301 unanimously in both the Idaho Senate and House. Other legislative bills and initiatives worth noting were House Bill 710aaS, or the Library Bill, that requires librarians to create a “Restricted” section for books that contain inappropriate material, several budget bills including Idaho Department of Transportation and Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, and $75 million in funding for Idaho’s newly created Launch program.

While we do anticipate a busy summer working on holdover items and new legislative proposals for next year, much of those discussions will have to wait. For those legislators who are running again, they will immediately head back to their districts to start knocking on doors in anticipation for the upcoming primary election on May 21st.

Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Idaho Advocacy.