BOISE -- On Thursday, Democrats continued with efforts to stall the session. They say they'll continue to stall until they have two of their bills heard. Those bills involve a public vote on education reform and increasing tobacco taxes.
Thursday afternoon, Republicans showed signs they've had enough. They protested a full-reading of the 29-page bill after just a few pages and wouldn't engage in debate of a Democrat-sponsored bill.
Republicans draw the line
Midway through the afternoon, House Minority Leader Representative John Rusche (D-Lewiston) asked for a full reading of a 29-page Senate Bill dealing with sex offender registration. Immediately, many chairs emptied on the floor. After a few pages, Republicans started speaking out.
"Mr. Speaker, I protest this," Representative JoAn Wood (R-Rigby) said from her seat on the floor. "I feel sorry for the clerk to have to read this. And not only that, I feel sorry for those of us that have to sit and hear this."
Wood said she didn't think bill language involving descriptions of sex crimes should be read on the House floor. She said it was more tolerable in it's one legally-required reading in committee.
"It was explicit, and I felt it was demeaning for the clerk to have to read it," Wood said. "Not only that, I was concerned that it was going out all over the state. We have a whole lot of young pages sitting here that work for us in the legislature, and it was just not language I felt needed to be broadcast all over for a political purpose."
Shortly after Wood's protest on the floor, another Republican stood up.
"Even though it is the law, I think it's inappropriate that it be read fully, in its entirety, and I would ask unanimous consent that we cease from reading the bill further. Thank you Mr. Speaker," Representative Stephen Hartgen (R-Twin Falls) said.
Democrats kept quiet, and the clerk stopped reading. The bill passed. Rusche said he did not object to stopping the bill reading because he understood the concerns.
"Certainly it's not our intent to upset people, but we do have a serious point that the people's voice is not being heard," Rep. John Rusche (D- Lewiston) said.
Republicans declining to debate Democrat bills
In a moment of irony at the end of the day, when the Minority Leader's own bill on immunizations came up, Rusche passed up a full reading.
"I ask unanimous consent to dispense with further reading of house bill 1100," Rusche said before arguing his bill.
"Now, that's kind of awkward," Speaker of the House Lawrence Denney said as laughter broke out on the floor.
Then, in another move of what some Republicans say was a "protest vote", they did not engage in debate before approving Rusche's bill. It's the same fast-tracking move Republicans used Wednesday when they quickly killed a Democrat bill about early child intervention.
"If we really don't care for the bill, rather than get up and make a lot of debate about it, we'll just vote no," Wood said.
"That was their choice to be petty and not deal with the policy issues. It's like, it's their choice. They could end this in a second by just agreeing to a hearing," Rusche said.
Democrats: Expect more full readings
Republican leaders say they're not willing to look at raising the tobacco tax or hearing a bill to send education reform to a public vote. They also say they're prepared to work extra hours to keep the session moving, and they hope to close by late next week.
"I think we're going to work as effectively as can, and what we basically did today is we accomplished the bills we would probably normally do during the regular work day. It just took us extra hours to do it. We're going to try to work extra hours so we can just be faithful to the taxpayers of the state and get our work done," House Majority Caucus Chair Ken Roberts (R-Donnelly) said.
Friday morning, the third Education Bill is in the House. Rusche says he plans to ask for a full reading and expects long debates from both sides, as was seen in the Senate.
