Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Statutory Cleanup Local Control topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee advances technical bill removing outdated Health and Welfare references, returns pool regulation to local control
Summary
House Bill 202, designed to update code references following past agency reorganizations and to remove Department of Health and Welfare from rulemaking for most public pools, was advanced to the Senate floor with a due‑pass recommendation after committee discussion.
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to advance House Bill 202 to the floor with a due‑pass recommendation. The bill updates statutory references to reflect agencies that were split from the Department of Health and Welfare years earlier and removes the department from promulgating and regulating most public swimming pools.
Jared Larson, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Chief at the Department of Health and Welfare, told the committee the bill corrects outdated references created when the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections (IDJC) split from the department in 1995 and when the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was created later. "Sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 relate to the creation of DEQ from the Department of Health and Welfare," Larson said. The bill also replaces a DHW reference in the state's water plan with DEQ (section 14), and transfers certain plumbing and HVAC references (sections 15 and 17) to the proper agency.
Larson said section 18 removes DHW from promulgating and regulating a small number of public pools; under the bill local public health boards would maintain the authority provided in statute to adopt and enforce health regulations locally. Larson described current state rules as "overly burdensome and too prescriptive," and said the change would allow health districts to adopt regulations locally without the department dictating specifics such as diving‑board dimensions. "We no longer want to be involved in that," Larson said, adding, "waters for fighting, and we don't wanna be in that fight anymore."
Committee discussion included a lighthearted acknowledgment of the diving‑board change. Senator Lenny, who moved to advance the bill, said he had supported addressing diving‑board rules since 2021 and described the change as something he wanted to accomplish. The motion to send House Bill 202 to the floor with a due‑pass recommendation was moved by Senator Lenny and seconded by Senator Burkey; the motion passed by voice vote.
The bill touches multiple statutory sections and is designed as a clean‑up and modernization of code references rather than a substantive policy change to create new programs or funding obligations. The committee record reflects committee members' agreement that department heads and affected agencies had been consulted and raised no objections to the technical corrections.
