top of page

Legislative Session Reports—Good, Bad, Ugly

Legislature 

​

APRIL 9, 2024

​

This is the 14th (and again hopefully the final) week of the legislative session. Below is a summary of this week’s legislative update meeting, held every Tuesday morning at 9:00 am. Please consider using this information to share with people in your precinct and contacting our legislators.

​

Both chambers voted to recess until April 10, which allows legislators to return and overturn any bills Gov. Brad Little may veto.

​

  • HB 710 – Attack on Public Libraries

  • The bill was passed by Senate Republicans last week and now sits on the governor's desk. The Governor has until tomorrow morning to veto it.

  • 69% of Idahoans trust public libraries and librarians to decide which books are on their shelves. 

  • Reincarnation of the first library bill

  • Creates cash incentives to attack libraries, allowing parents to sue if their child receives materials they find “harmful.”

  • Regardless of political affiliation or where they live, everyone deserves the right to access books, reading material, and information they want.

  • Click on the following link to voice your opinion or call the governor’s office and leave a voice mail message. 208.334.2100.

  •  

  • https://secure.ngpvan.com/TH4xrK8NwU-U0xxlOAnWXQ2

  •  

  • HB 421 – Gender definitions

  • The bill was passed by Senate Republicans last week and now sits on the governor's desk. He has until 11:20 today to veto it.

  • This would make the definition of “gender” synonymous with “sex” in state law. See the above phone number and link to contact the governor’s office.

  • HB 538 – Pronouns

  • Signed by Governor Little.

  • The bill makes it illegal to "force" any state employee to use someone's correct pronouns.

  • The bill also requires students to receive parental permission before requesting school staff use a name or pronoun that is different from the one listed on their birth certificate

  •  This bill accomplishes what it sets out to prohibit: by restricting speech to a pre-determined rubric, state employees and school staff would be forced to use specific pronouns. This conflicts with the First Amendment. 

  •  

 

If you are interested in getting into the weeds of any legislative bills, you can also track the status of any of the bills by clicking on the following link:

https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2024/legislation/

 

Once you are there, you can click on the link to each bill. To learn more about what the bill means, click on the Statement of Purpose or the Bill Text.

bottom of page