In the Legislature
Family minimum wage bill introduced
Idaho businesses who employ immediate family members who are minors may soon be able to pay them less than minimum wage.
A bill that would add immediate family members under 18-years-old to the minimum wage exemption law was introduced by the Idaho House Business committee Jan. 30 with two dissenters.
Current state law offers minimum wage exemptions for minors working on family farms and for 16-year-olds working part-time under four hours a day.
Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, proposed the legislation because a constituent in his district who builds log homes reached out to him about the disparity.
“He was worried whether he was breaking the law or not to have his kids work in the shop, and sweep up and clean up. And he saw the exception for agriculture and wanted to make sure he was on the right side of the law when he employs his family members,” Nate said.
Nate’s bill initially would have applied the exemptions to extended family members as well, but its lack of definition for the term extended caused debate in the committee that ultimately resulted in its striking out by Assistant Majority Leader Brent Crane.
“The word chosen was actually the recommendation of the drafter from LSO, so I will circle back with them,” Nate told the committee.
After the term’s removal, Rep. Armstrong said “I moved to my uncle’s farm and had this minimum wage requirement (existed), I think he would have had a very difficult time having me milk the cows every morning and night and I wasn’t his immediate family. I was extended family, and I would have been in very difficult circumstances had that not be available to him.”
Two democrats, Rep. Sally Toone and Rep. Dick Chilcote, voted against the bill. Chilcote is filling in for Boise Rep. Hy Kloc.
The proposal can now go to a public hearing before the committee.
‘Abortion reversal’ bill to be heard
An Idaho Senate panel voted Jan. 29 to introduce a bill modifying Idaho’s abortion informed consent statutes to include information about reversals of medical abortions.
The bill, from Sen. Lori Den Hartog, would direct the Department of Health and Welfare to modify the Fetal Development packet it distributes to physicians offering abortions to include information about the reversal procedure.
The procedure, which is not supported by published scientific data, would only potentially work for those who take the first of two pills and want to halt the abortion to have a regular pregnancy. Rates of its effectiveness have been questioned by legislators and professionals.
Den Hartog’s bill has nearly identical language to one she sponsored late last session, which was approved to be printed but never received another hearing.
“Maybe there’s some new research that has taken place,” Assistant Majority Leader Cherie Buckner-Webb said referencing last year’s bill, “but there’s no scientific data, according to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, to say that this was effective.”
The reversal procedure calls for treatment of a sex hormone, progesterone, which has been the subject of research since at least the early 2010s. In 2015, American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecologists said research indicated “doing nothing and waiting to see what happens is just as effective as intervening with a course of progesterone.”
Den Hartog said she consulted with a national organization called the Abortion Pill Reversal. The organization’s website claims 55 percent of patients who undergo the procedure deliver healthy babies, but they offer no methodology.
Both Democrats on the committee, Majority Leader Michelle Stennett and Sen. Buckner-Webb, asked to be recorded as no votes.
The bill needs to be heard at a public hearing and be passed by the committee before moving to the full Senate for consideration.
Prescription CBD bill introduced
A bill to legalize prescription use of CBD oil was approved for consideration by the Idaho House Health & Welfare committee Thursday.
The legislation, RS25862, was proposed by Rep. Dorothy Moon, R-Stanley, and would legalize use and possession of CBD oil, or cannabidiol oil, if prescribed by a licensed practitioner or physician.
The bill stipulates that it should not contain THC levels over three percent and that the oil must be obtained through legal means.
THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive chemical compound in marijuana that gives users a subjective high. CBD is non-psychoactive and is often used to treat epilepsy, arthritis and a slew of other conditions.
The bill was approved for a public hearing through unanimous voice vote without debate or questions.
Left lane law introduced
Traveling slow in the left lane on interstates in Idaho may soon result in a fine.
A bill to make impeding traffic for “an unreasonable amount of time” on controlled access highways, like interstates and freeways, an infraction was approved for consideration by a House panel Jan. 30.
It was proposed by Rep. Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, who successfully proposed a bill last session to allow people to go over 15 miles per hour over the speed limit while passing.
Clow called this follow-up bill a “legislative courtesy.”
“We can see this happen quite happen,” he said. “It might be a motor home or somebody pulling a fifth wheel. They get on a hill and they don’t want to go 80 and so it takes them forever to go around them so it impedes traffic.”
The committee had no debate on the proposal, and the only comment from members was from Rep. Phylis King, D-Boise, who moved to introduce the legislation. She jokingly said, “and I want to make the fine a thousand dollars,” though she did not make a motion to modify the bill.
The bill must be approved by the committee following a public hearing.
Medicaid work requirements added to health care reform bill
Idaho may soon join Kentucky in requiring able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work, as part of a newly proposed waiver to the Idaho Health Care Plan.
The plan, which calls for a dual-waiver approach to reduce soaring health care premiums, was approved for consideration in a 10-1 vote by a House panel Jan. 30.
The proposal’s addition comes amid federal lawsuits challenging the legality of work requirements. The suits argue congressional action is necessary to enact the requirements.
New additions to state health reform would direct the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to create a waiver requiring able-bodied adults who receive Medicaid to work.
A draft bill indicates the requirements would resemble those in the state’s SNAP food stamps program and the temporary assistance programs for families. SNAP requires able-bodied adults work, while also placing limits on income to remain eligible, according to DHW’s website.
Department of Health and Welfare Deputy Director Lori Wolf said those with medical conditions that prevent them from working would be exempt.
“The number of individuals who would be impacted by these requirements would be low,” Wolf told the House Health & Welfare committee. “The importance of helping these individuals though our work and training programs promotes long term work stability and self-reliance (and) was consistent with Idaho values.”
Some disagreed with the change, which could potentially affect the plan’s other two waivers.
One of the plan’s original waivers would move those with “medically complex conditions” off the individual insurance market to Medicaid. Wolf estimated it would remove $200 million off the individual marketplace.
“My understanding is that we have very stringent standards for who can qualify for adult Medicaid, and that those who are there are disabled. But even within the non-formally disabled community, those making under 26 percent of the poverty line are predominately afflicted with some degree of mental illness,” Assistant Minority Leader Ilana Rubel said.
The other waiver aims to close the Medicaid gap by waiving the tax credit ban for those who make less than 100 percent of the federal poverty limit. In a spending hearing two weeks ago, state officials estimated it would give coverage to 36,000 Idahoans.
The Idaho Health Care Plan was approved for a public hearing. If approved by the committee, the reform bill wills be considered by the full House.
‘Stand your ground’ bill introduced
A bill to revise Idaho self-defense laws, known as “stand your ground” legislation, was approved for consideration by an Idaho House panel Jan. 29.
The legislation, from Rep. Christy Zito, R-Hammett, was drafted in consultation with gun rights organizations like the National Rifle Association. It would protect those using deadly force against people invading their homes or workplace in certain circumstances by creating criminal immunity for self-defense while removing the existing exemption for self-defense in Idaho’s justifiable homicide statutes.
Members of the House State Affairs Committee questioned some of the wording, as a draft of the bill states the person using deadly force is justified, “if he reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another, to prevent the commission of a violent felony or when attempting to apprehend a person for any felony committed.”
“My concern is that we’re making a distinction, where in other legislation we typically use different language,” Rep. Jason Monks, R-Nampa, said.
“Might be more appropriate to modify the language to be more objective,” Rep. Steven Harris, R-Meridian, said.
Another area of contention in the bill’s print hearing was the lack of a definition for workplace, which a second amendment rights attorney said is “best left to the courts.”
Alexandria Kincaid, legal counsel for the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, told the committee the legislation was prompted by Idaho being ranked in the bottom 10 states for gun rights by the Guns and Ammo magazine.
“The ranking in a magazine is not a good reason to change our laws as opposed to problems with the law in the state of Idaho,” Monks said.
When asked about specific examples of Idaho’s current self-defense statutes presenting problems for defendants, Kincaid said she would give examples of cases in a future public hearing.
The bill also would provide repayment to law enforcement officers who use deadly force while acting under “official duties” and are found not guilty of crimes.
After over 40 minutes of debate, the committee voted 14-1 to introduce the bill. Rep. Elaine Smith voted no.
Bill increasing tobacco age introduced
A bill that would raise the age to purchase and use tobacco products to 21-years-old in Idaho was approved for consideration by a Senate panel Jan. 31.
If the bill becomes law, Idaho would be the sixth state to raise the smoking age to 21. California, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey and Oregon have made the age 21. Utah has made the age 19 and has tried several times to raise the age to 21.
The bill was proposed by Sen. Fred Martin, R-Boise, who had similar legislation last session. The Senate State Affairs committee moved to print this year’s bill without debate.
“I want to thank this committee for those that were on it last year who gave us tremendous insight and suggestions to make this RS better,” Martin said. “In the interim, I received an attorney general opinion on the constitutionally of this proposal. Because of you all – your help, your kindness to me – I regard this a better bill.”
It must now be heard before a public hearing.
– Kyle Pfannenstiel covers the 2018 Idaho Legislature for the University of Idaho McClure Center for Public Policy Research.