The Idaho Legislature is about to return for another go, and you may - or, like many people, not - want to keep on top of what’s going on there.
But it’s definitely in your own self-interest to at least keep an eye on them.
Here’s a positive note about the Idaho Legislature: They’ve actually made it easy for people to watch them, from the comfort of their homes or anywhere they can use a smartphone.
When I covered the Idaho Legislature as a reporter, quite some time ago, the internet wasn’t a factor, or even known beyond some academic and government circles. If I were covering it now, digital communications would be a central tool. Watching and reading online really isn’t as good as being there, but it’s remarkably informative anyway.
When I came to work at the Statehouse, a first job each day was to check the status of legislation and find out what was going on, in committees and on the floor, that day.
You can do this online through the legislative sessions web page (https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/) which gives you most of what you need to know. You can find a list of every piece of legislation introduced in the “Mini-data†(in print form, it’s a single sheet of paper showing the bill numbers, a brief description of it, and where in the process it is). Changes from the previous day are usually marked with an asterisk; I often scanned through it for anything I earlier missed.
Committees are where much of the action happens for most of the session, and a list of legislative committee meetings can be found on the sessions page. Follow that and you can check on all committee meetings for the next two or three days; they’re supposed to be posted well in advance. Minutes are posted too for meetings during the session.
Text and bill analysis is linked as well from a number of places (the most efficient is through the Mini-Data). The committees also review state regulations, mainly in the early part of the session, and those are available online too.
Floor calendars - a list of the bills and resolutions planned for action (or simply for a formal “reading†with no debate), usually (not always) clear descriptions of each, are available there too.
That’s all solid basic material, but what if you want to watch the legislators in action?
It’s easily done from the page at https://www.idahoptv.org/shows/idahoinsession/Legislature/. Working with Idaho Public Television, the legislature has arranged to provide video recordings of almost every meeting at the session, both on the floor and in committees. These are highly useful. When it came to floor sessions in the pre-net days, reporters often would hang around for hours to watch for the specific bill or debate of special interest; toward the end of the session, legislators often are on the floor for hours each day. Now, recorded video can be easily scanned through; if you have an agenda, you can quickly find the debate or testimony you’re interested in.
You don’t have to watch any of this live; if watching it at night, or days or weeks later is more convenient, that works. (Many past sessions are available in the archives too.)
The legislature over the next three months or so will be considering bills, resolutions and more that will affect the lives of people all over Idaho; you can draw plenty of examples of that from last year’s session. The best way to start to have an impact on that is to keep up with what they’re doing.
The good news is, that part really isn’t too hard.
The more difficult part comes in figuring out what to do about what you see. But to take action, you need to have the facts in hand first.
(image/Idaho State Legislature)