The Senate Friday batted down an attempt by hardline conservatives to call up a bill that stalled in committee affecting teachers’ unions. 

House Bill 745 would prohibit school districts from deducting union dues from payroll systems and from offering employees paid leave for union activities, among other restrictions. 

The House passed the bill on March 3, but Sen. Dan Foreman, chairman of the Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee, hasn’t given it a hearing. 

During the Senate’s floor session Friday, Sen. Christy Zito asked to call the bill out of committee. The seldom-used procedural move, allowed under the Senate’s rules, would bypass the committee process and bring the bill up for a vote in the full Senate. 

“When a bill addresses how our hard-earned money is spent or how it may be misused to block full Senate consideration is to deny taxpayers their full representation,” said Zito, R-Mountain Home.

Foreman responded that he decided to hold the bill in committee “in accordance with the rules of the Senate.” 

“Hearing this bill and passing this bill now will undermine … promising negotiations and work with the teachers’ union in an effort to make positive changes to the public school system,” said Foreman, R-Moscow. 

Sens. Glenneda Zuiderveld, R-Twin Falls; Josh Keyser, R-Meridian; and Joshua Kohl, R-Twin Falls, debated in favor of Zito’s effort. 

But they were outnumbered. The Senate voted 25-9 to “excuse the committee” from releasing HB 745. 

Foreman could still hold a hearing on the bill. But it likely will stay in the committee for the remainder of the session. 

Committee kills bill on ‘medical mandates,’ immunization registry

A far-reaching and controversial medical freedom bill appears dead for the session.

The House Health and Welfare Committee voted to hold House Bill 808 in committee, after divided testimony that echoed Thursday’s hearing on the bill.

Presented as a followup to a 2025 medical freedom law, HB 808 would have made a major change to the state’s immunization registry. Currently, parents can opt their children out of the Immunization Reminder Information System, or IRIS. HB 808 would have turned IRIS into an opt-in program.

The bill also would have declared vaccines as “voluntary.” No vaccinations are required under state law — and parents can opt out of vaccines by turning in a note to their child’s school.

Vaccines were again a focal point during Friday’s public hearing.

Immunizations are risky, but since the risk varies from person to person, medical freedom is essential, said Sarah Bacon, a Kimberly resident who said she has worked with vaccine-injured children for 10 years. “It doesn’t happen to everyone, but it can happen to anyone.”

IRIS opt-in language would create “an unnecessary barrier” for parents who want to use the registry, said Holly Papa, a Meridian resident speaking on behalf of Mormon Women for Ethical Government. “It would weaken a tool that supports public health.”

After testimony, the sharply divided committee worked through a series of motions. An attempt to temporarily table HB 808 failed. A motion to send the bill to the House floor also failed. The committee then voted to hold the bill, likely killing it.

Social media addiction bill faces amendment

Supported by state and national conservative groups — but opposed by tech industry representatives — a bill targeting social media addiction is headed to the Senate floor.

But the bill could be amended.

Dubbed the “Stop Harms from Addictive Social Media Act,” House Bill 542 would require social media sites to use their own age identification technology to identify users likely to be under the age of 16. The social media sites would then need to receive parental consent for users deemed to be under 16, and would be forbidden from presenting “addictive interface features” on those users’ feed.

“These kids are faced with something we were never faced with,” said Rep. Jaron Crane, R-Nampa, a co-sponsor of the bill.

HB 542’s focus on addictive material is unique, an attorney from a national conservative legal group told the Senate State Affairs Committee Friday.

“This bill is a landmark piece of legislation,” said Chelsea Youman, senior counsel with the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defending Freedom. Youman said her group did not write HB 542, but consulted with the authors.

Several tech reps spoke against the bill, citing First Amendment concerns and saying the July 1 effective date was unworkable.

The bill also would arbitrarily apply to some social media platforms and not others, based on a $1 billion annual revenue threshold, said Jennifer Hanley, Meta’s head of safety policy for North America. Hanley criticized a “private right of action” clause that would allow parents or children to seek civil damages.

Closing the debate over HB 542, the bill’s Senate sponsor called out Meta — saying the tech giant raised new concerns about the bill, beyond its initial reservations about the effective date.

“I think we’ve struck a nerve with this bill,” said Sen. Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins.

The committee was torn.

Senate Majority Leader Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, wanted to send the bill to the floor for an immediate vote, saying she saw no need to push back the effective date. Assistant Majority Leader Mark Harris, R-Soda Springs, said he wanted to change the start date and address other issues.

Sen. Brandon Shippy, R-New Plymouth, opposed the bill.

“To me, it really comes down to a parenting issue,” he said. “The real fix is responsible parenting.”

On a 7-2 vote, the committee sided with Harris, sending the bill to the floor for amendments.

Bill to move positions from executive branch to Legislature advances to full House

A bill that would eliminate vacant positions across state government and transfer a third of them to the Legislature is heading to the full House. 

House Bill 836 easily cleared the House Appropriations Committee. Members voted to send to the amending order, where the full House could change it. 

The bill would defund state positions that have been vacant for more than 180 days. One-third of the funding for these positions would be transferred to the Legislature, which would use the money to hire “support personnel for individual legislators and associated administrative staff.”

Sponsoring Sen. Phil Hart, R-Kellogg, said the Legislature gets a fraction of the executive branch’s funding. Lacking sufficient resources, the legislative branch can’t use its powers, such as impeaching judges and executive officials, Hart said. 

“We need help,” he said. “I think this bill gets us that help.”

HB 836 would apply to all “departments,” defined as any “agency, institution, or office of the state of Idaho that receives a legislative appropriation for personnel costs.” 

The bill would also require that state agencies detail their employees’ travel expenses in annual budget submissions to the Legislature. 

Hart asked the Appropriations Committee to send the bill to the amending order because he did not mean to cut vacant positions for Idaho State Police. Committee members agreed in a unanimous vote. 

Committee approves bill reworking required hours for CTE instructors

The House Education Committee unanimously approved a bill reworking the hours of professional experience required to be a career-technical educator. 

Currently, CTE instructors must demonstrate 6,000 hours of professional experience — or 2,000 hours if they have a bachelor’s degree — in a field related to the content they plan to teach. 

Rep. Kyle Harris’ proposal would eliminate the required hours in state law and allow the Division of Career Technical Education to establish new minimums through the administrative rules process. 

“We’ll work with them and industry professionals to figure out where to set hours based on profession,” said Harris, R-Lewiston. “It’s the first step in fixing some of the issues we’re having in getting professionals into the classroom.”

House Bill 832 now heads to the full House.

House approves Tax Commission budget increases

State Tax Commission budget increases cleared the House on Friday. 

The commission’s budget “enhancement” bill includes an additional $2.3 million that would fund, among other things, increasing administrative costs to implement tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

It would also cover costs associated with implementing the Parental Choice Tax Credit, said sponsoring Rep. Kyle Harris, R-Lewiston. “This is a necessary function of government to make sure that we can get these taxes done and get them done timely.”

House Bill 871 heads to the Senate.