House Business Grinds to Halt, as Scott, Giddings Argue Over Personal Bill on Abortion
Business in the House ground to a halt this morning, as Reps. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, and Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, mounted an unsuccessful parliamentary maneuver to pull Scott’s “Abortion Human Rights Act” personal bill, HB 361, out of the Ways & Means Committee to the House floor. That prompted much back-and-forth over the committee system and whether it’s working as it should, and over the power of committee chairs to stop bills from proceeding, simply by not scheduling them for hearings. House Transportation Chairman Joe Palmer, R-Meridian, told the House, “There has to be a backstop somewhere. If you don’t have the backstop, you’re going to continue on forever and ever. … We’ve seen other states where they run a full-time legislature. I don’t think that’s what the people of Idaho want.”
Scott said, “There’s no rules that personal bills are personal bills. It has a bill number. It’s been sitting in committee.” Giddings demanded to know how many personal bills are sitting in the Ways & Means Committee without hearings; Speaker Scott Bedke ruled the question out of order.
Asked what rule lays out that procedure, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Robert Anderst, R-Nampa, said, “That’s how we’ve operated since I’ve been here.”
Scott said, “We just want a public hearing. We just want both sides of the issue to be heard. … It’s causing a divide in conservatives, this whole issue. …That’s why I’d like this issue to be heard.” (Read more from “House Business Grinds to Halt, as Scott, Giddings Argue Over Personal Bill on Abortion” HERE)
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