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LSO proposes centralized portal for statutorily required reports; committee advances bill
Summary
The House State Affairs Committee advanced House Bill 2 15 after a Legislative Services Office presentation describing a plan for a public, searchable portal that would centralize reports agencies currently send to the Legislature and committees.
The Idaho House State Affairs Committee voted to send House Bill 2 15 to the floor with a "do pass" recommendation after hearing a presentation from the Legislative Services Office on a centralized portal for statutorily required reports.
The bill, presented by Representative Heather Scott (District 2) and analyst Alex Penny of the Legislative Services Office (LSO), would create a searchable, public repository for reports agencies are required by statute to send to the Legislature. LSO said the portal is intended to help legislators monitor agency activity and give taxpayers easier access to statutorily required reports.
"It will be on the legislature's website, and it will be searchable by agency," Alex Penny, research analyst, Legislative Services Office, told the committee. Penny said LSO used in‑house searches of Idaho Code to identify hundreds of reporting requirements and surveyed agencies about how reports are currently submitted.
Penny described the research effort as follows: LSO identified "over 370" statutory reporting requirements, reduced that list to about 296 requirements for follow-up, and sent a survey packet to 105 agencies. The survey returned roughly 57 responses indicating a report was no longer submitted or was no longer relevant, Penny said.
Representative Scott told the committee the bill also includes provisions to clean up obsolete code sections identified during the survey and to set a uniform deadline when a reporting statute does not include one. "If there's no due date then it's set for December 15 of each year," Scott said.
Scott and Penny said the portal would not replace current delivery to committees; agencies could still submit reports in the same way while also posting them to the portal. Penny said LSO is exploring automated notifications to committees and agencies and word‑search functionality to help users find reports.
Representative Boyle and Representative Alfieri asked about committee training and public access. Penny said LSO could provide training and that the intention is for the portal's contents to be publicly accessible. Representative Mickelson moved to send the bill to the floor with a due pass recommendation; the committee approved the motion by voice vote.
Votes at a glance: Motion to send House Bill 2 15 to the floor with the "do pass" recommendation — moved by Representative Mickelson; approved by committee voice vote.
The committee advances a measure aimed at consolidating dispersed statutory reporting into a single, searchable public portal and at removing obsolete statutory reporting requirements identified by agency responses to an LSO survey. The bill now goes to the full House for further consideration.
