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Committee sends bill to floor to allow mortuary staff to assist coroners
Summary
The Local Government Committee voted to send Senate Bill 11-21 to the floor with a do-pass recommendation. Sponsors said the bill removes the word “employees” to allow qualified part-time mortuary staff to assist coroners; lawmakers asked how the change protects against unqualified workers.
The Local Government Committee voted to send Senate Bill 11-21 to the House floor with a do-pass recommendation after sponsors said the bill would remove the word “employees” from statute to allow qualified part-time mortuary workers to assist coroners.
Committee sponsor Senator Mark Harris, R‑Legislative District 35, told the committee the change would “free up part time employees to work and assist coroners and the things that they do,” while still leaving restrictions in place for licensed funeral directors, licensed morticians, owners and proprietors.
Supporters and committee members said the change responds to coroners’ requests for help. “Coroners are looking for people who can help them,” Harris said, adding that the intent is not to broaden work to unqualified staff such as janitors but to permit qualified mortuary workers to perform disposition and related tasks.
Representative Birch asked whether striking the word “employees” would allow “any employee at all whatsoever,” including people without relevant qualifications. Harris replied that coroners seek people qualified to assist with disposition and that the bill is intended to address that need. Representative Cheatham asked whether mortuary owners would be eligible to serve as coroners; Harris explained a separate part of statute differentiates eligibility by county size, saying morticians in counties with more than 20,000 residents are generally not eligible to be coroners while those in counties under 20,000 may be, which he described as a business‑practice safeguard in larger counties.
Kelly Brasfield, representing the Idaho Association of Counties, stood in support of the bill. Representative Wheeler moved to send the bill to the floor with a do-pass recommendation; the committee approved the motion by voice vote.
The action advances the bill to the full chamber but does not itself change statute language beyond the committee recommendation. Any final eligibility rules or enforcement details would be determined later in the legislative process or by the referenced statutory chapter.
