House State Affairs Committee introduces multiple bills, advances travel-reporting and recall changes to the floor

The Idaho House State Affairs Committee met to introduce several draft rules and proposed bills and to advance three House bills to the full House, the committee chair said.

Representative Brent Crane, a state representative from District 13 in Nampa, introduced a set of draft lobbying and campaign-finance revisions on behalf of Representative Moyle and said the drafts would be circulated for at least a week for additional feedback before a final version is produced. "These are not from Representative Crane, these are from Representative Moyle. But he was unable to be here this morning so he asked if I would get them introduced for him today," Crane said.

The committee also considered a House concurrent resolution denouncing political violence, changes to a House rule about conduct in the chamber, and three House bills that the committee voted to send to the House floor with a due-pass recommendation.

Why it matters: The measures affect legislative transparency and procedural rules. The campaign-finance and lobbying drafts propose limits and disclosure windows that could alter reporting by outside groups and lobbyists; the travel-reporting bills would expand public reporting of paid travel for legislators or statewide elected officials; and the recall bill would align signature thresholds with new district-based elections in cities that recently crossed a population threshold.

Key items and discussion

- Lobbying revisions (RS 32,634). Representative Crane said RS 32,634 incorporates feedback from an earlier lobbying bill and adds a provision intended to address perceptions that relatives of legislators should not serve as lobbyists. Representative Palmer moved to introduce RS 32,634; the committee voted to introduce the draft and send it out for comment.

- Campaign finance draft (RS 32,636). Crane summarized at least three changes in RS 32,636 compared with an earlier…