Bill Count Up 20% in Legislature This Year, Likely Setting Record

Idaho lawmakers appear to have set a new record for introduced legislation, including resolutions and memorials, which is 779 at the time of this writing.

What’s Happening: The average number of bills introduced in a given year is 651, dating back to 2015. This year, there has been a 20% increase in introduced legislation compared to the last ten legislative sessions, and it is likely a record-breaking amount of proposals.

In particular, there has been a significant increase in legislation from the House Chamber. Some lawmakers have suggested that the House is more conservative and can now pass more legislation.

Digging Deeper: Other lawmakers and political activists have told me that there is a chance good legislation is moving through the House that would allow lawmakers to increase their Idaho Freedom Foundation scores.

Another problem might be that lawmakers often rewrite and reintroduce a bill instead of working through the burdensome amendment process, sometimes hours after a measure’s first hearing. The complex amendment process is a common complaint in the capitol.

This year, Rep. Ben Fuhriman (R-Shelley) introduced legislation that would limit the number of proposals a lawmaker can do to 12. Despite the bill receiving a lot of support from House Health and Welfare Committee members, the legislation won’t be moving forward this session. Fuhriman’s bill would have also required lawmakers to disclose whether the bill was their original idea or if it was being presented on behalf of an organization.

Will the legislature hit 800 proposals before the session ends? Are they introducing too many bills, or is this a product of bad rules that need to be changed or something else?

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Tags: Bills, Legislation, Memorials, Record, Resolutions

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