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Senate committee sends bill limiting public-health-district powers to amendment order
Summary
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to send Senate Bill 1031 — which would restrict actions by local public health districts to those "necessary and reasonable" and grounded in statute and scientific evidence — to the fourteenth order for possible amendment after lawmakers questioned vague terms including "state law" and "preventive".
Senate Bill 1031, a proposal to narrow the authority of local public health districts, was sent to the fourteenth order for possible amendment by the Idaho Senate Health and Welfare Committee after more than an hour of debate about wording and scope.
Senator Brian Lenny of Nampa, who introduced the bill, said the measure would replace broad language that currently allows health districts to “do all things” in the name of public health with a requirement that actions be "specifically authorized by state law," "necessary and reasonable," and supported by scientific evidence. "If you are going to do something, it should be justified by science, by reason, by necessity," Lenny said.
Lawmakers who questioned the bill said its broad phrases are ambiguous and could unintentionally limit routine preventive…
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