Rep. Steve Berch Newsletter - Political Malpractice

The 2021 legislative session of the Idaho House of Representatives has officially ended.  It technically lasted 311 days, which included a two-week recess in March due to a COVID outbreak infecting several legislators, and a six month recess that started in May. The latter recess was an attempt by the majority party to bypass the state Constitution, which only allows the governor to call the legislature into special session. 
 
In fact, it is not clear that any bill that might have been signed into law last week would have been deemed constitutional by the state Supreme Court. But none of that matters since all attempts to pass legislation after the legislature reconvened on November 15th were futile.
 
But not to worry. The majority party will get a do-over when the 2022 legislative session starts on January 10th. Of course, they could have saved everyone time and money by simply waiting a few weeks until the 2022 session started . . .

One of my West Ada County legislative colleagues spilled the beans. 
 
Arguing against the accusation of being too hasty by introducing 29 new bills with one day’s notice, this colleague countered during floor debate:  “We haven’t been hasty. We’ve been working on some of these bills since July.” 
 
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Exhibit A for political malpractice. A majority party that controls 80% of the Senate and over 82% of the House has been working for nearly four months writing bills behind closed doors:  Four months to draft legislation, eliminate redundancy, consider long term consequences, finalize a few carefully crafted bills, and build a consensus in both the House and Senate to pass them.
 
Instead, we got a hodge-podge of 29 bills introduced in the House that were withheld from the public until the first day of the reconvened session (November 15) and voted on the next day. Some read as if they were written on the back of napkin. Most of them where so poorly written that you could drive a truck through the gaps in logic, legality, and fiscal impact.
 
The outcome:  Nothing. Not a single bill passed. The majority party spent $100,000 of your tax dollars to reconvene the legislature with nothing to show for it. 
 
Actually, that’s not entirely true. One legislator confided in private that it really didn’t matter if any of the bills actually passed. What mattered was creating talking points for re-election campaigns next year by simply introducing them (e.g. “I tried to do . . .”). This is why every single bill was allowed to initially move forward with no deliberation in the House Ways and Means committee on the first day. 
 
In fact, the political malpractice on display this week makes a convincing argument for not allowing the legislature to ever call itself into special session. This could happen multiple times every year if voters pass a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on next November’s ballot to give the legislature this new power.

The events of this week took place a year before the 2022 election. Imagine if the legislature could pull this political stunt a month before Election Day!  The opportunities to pervert the legislative process for purely political campaign purposes are endless – which would be endlessly paid for by you. 
 
 
A question of balance
 

Many of the bills, either singularly or in combination, gave the unvaccinated the right to work anywhere, anytime, in any environment and without disclosure. The rights of those who want to avoid exposure to those who are unvaccinated were never considered. One scenario would not allow you to ask or confirm if a caregiver employed by a business or government entity was unvaccinated, thus preventing you from denying them employment and entry into your home to take care of your kids or elderly parents.
 
The honest, mature, professional debate we should have had this week was how to balance the rights of the individual with the rights of others and the public at large. Allowing anyone to do anything they want, anywhere, at any time, without any responsibility or consequence for their actions is anarchy.  Conversely, government control of everything at the cost of individual liberty is oppression. 
 
The best path forward is somewhere in the middle, rather than either extreme. It’s what discerning and disciplined legislators do in the face of highly emotional and inflammatory circumstances. In the words of J. K. Rowling, “We must face the choice between what is easy and what is right.” It’s easy to play into the emotions of the moment.  It’s a lot harder to step back and discern the right course of action that may not fully satisfy those emotions. 
 
This is why we need to elect critical thinkers who understand they have a responsibility to represent the interests of all constituents, not just those who voted for them. 
 
This is why we need to vote for the person, not a letter or a color.

 

The 29 bills.  Normally I would go through the details of several bills in this section of my newsletter. However, given that nothing passed mostly due to poor quality and indefensible logic, I will defer that discussion for what resurfaces during the 2022 session.  However there were a few actions that took place last week worth noting.
 
Federal Over-reach Defense Fund (H409). The purpose of this bill was to take $2 million of your taxpayer dollars and put it in a special fund dedicated to paying private lawyers to defend in court any of the 29 bills that might have become law. This money would be spent at the sole discretion of only two people: the Republican speaker of the house and the Republican leader of the Senate. It failed by a 6-12 vote in JFAC (Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee).
 
Ethics committee recommendation to censure Rep. Priscilla Giddings (R-White Bird). The House voted 49-19 to censure Rep. Priscilla Giddings for “conduct unbecoming” a member of the House and remove her from her seat on the Commerce and Human Resources committee.  
 
Giddings posted links to an ultra-extremist blog on both her Facebook page and in her official constituent newsletter. These links identified a 19-year-old legislative intern who accused former Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger of rape (who is now facing trial for two criminal felony charges). The House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to recommend the sanctions and also cited Giddings for “repeated lying, half-truths, and total disrespect for the Ethics Committee.”
 
After watching the hearings and reading the report, I concurred with the bi-partisan Ethics committee and voted in favor of the sanctions.  Giddings has shown no remorse whatsoever at any time during this process. Instead, she is treating her censure as a badge of honor and leveraging it to fundraise for her campaign to be elected Idaho’s next Governor in 2022. 
 
Vote to Sine Die.  This is worth noting only because of the vote.  Twenty-four (24) Republicans voted to still keep the 2021 session going! Fortunately 37 House members voted to put a formal end to the session. I missed that vote due to a family emergency. Had I been present, I would have voted to Sine Die and end the session. Thankfully my vote was not needed.

I have low expectations for the 2022 session, which will begin on the eve of an extremely contentious election year. Given events over the summer (such as the Lt. Governor’s witch-hunt task force) and the failures of this past week, we’re likely to see the following next session: 

• The return of bills that failed last week.
• Dozens of voter suppression bills.
• Punitive measures that threaten to hurt public education and intimidate teachers.
• Tax cuts for the wealthy instead of investing in education, infrastructure and vital services.
• Continued dismantling of institutions that protect public health and safety.

I hope I’m wrong.