Health Department seeks to repeal 150 obsolete code sections; committee sends bill to floor

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare told a Senate committee it has identified roughly 150 obsolete code sections across its statutes and is seeking legislative authority to repeal them.

Alex Adams, director of the Department of Health and Welfare, told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that agency staff reviewed the department’s statutes and found numerous sections that are no longer operative — committees that have not met in decades, grant programs that are no longer funded and other deadweight provisions. "We found 150 sections that we identified as obsolete," he said, and described the change as a cleanup effort intended to declutter state law.

Adams said the removals carry no fiscal impact. He told senators the department posted the drafting for public review and coordinated with stakeholders, saying the goal is to harmonize and simplify the code rather than to change current programmatic authority. "This is bringing harmony to my code, decluttering, and this is why we posted it for 3 weeks in the House," he said.

Sen. Melissa Wintrow asked whether assisted-living licensing or inspection authority would be affected; Adams said related changes had been coordinated with other legislation that updated assisted-living inspection provisions so the repeal would not remove an active statutory authority. Adams acknowledged the bill removes stale language and that some sections had been made nonoperative by more recent statutes.

Senators voted to send House Bill 91 to the Senate floor with a "do pass" recommendation. The motion was moved by Sen. Harris and seconded by Sen. Keiser. The committee approved the motion by voice vote; no roll-call was recorded in the transcript excerpts.