Idaho legislative session to resume Tuesday

After failing to meet their adjournment target for the second time this year, Idaho legislators are taking a long holiday weekend.

Both of the Idaho House of Representatives and Idaho Senate are taking Monday off.

On Friday, the Idaho Senate voted to adjourn until 10 a.m. Tuesday, while the Idaho House voted to adjourn until 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Legislators had first hoped to adjourn the session March 22, but the Idaho House got bogged down in budget disputes and leadership fights. When the Idaho Senate killed a major transportation budget Thursday, that meant legislators would miss their new target to adjourn March 29.

When the Idaho Legislature resumes Tuesday, it will mark the 86th day of the session, which began Jan. 8. Holidays, weekends and days off like Monday still count toward the official number of days in session.

While there is no legal requirement to adjourn the session by a certain date, House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, was optimistic Friday that next week could be final week of the session if the Idaho House and Idaho Senate resolve their differences in the fight over the state’s $51 million sale of the Idaho Transportation Department’s former Boise headquarters at 3311 State St. Legislators also have some final education spending budgets and a Medicaid budget to consider.

“So when those come together, hopefully we’re almost there,” Moyle told the Idaho Capital Sun on Friday. “The key will still be the transportation budget. The Senate killed it, we’ll see what (the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee) sends out. If they kill it again we are still stuck here, but if they hadn’t killed it we’d probably be gone today. So we’ve got our work to do there.”

Moyle said one consideration coming back for a fresh week is ensuring that legislators are on the same page about wanting to finish up. 

“I’d like to get in and out as fast as we can, but it will depend on these budgets,” Moyle said.