In an effort to help Idahoans follow major bills through the legislative process, the Idaho Capital Sun again will produce a “legislative notebook” at the end of each week to gather information in one place that concerns major happenings in the Legislature and state government. We started this feature last year and heard from readers all over the state that they found it helpful, so we’re back at it for the 2026 session.
Full disclosure: The legislative notebook won’t be the be-all, end-all of legislative coverage with deep context and analysis. We hope you’re signed up for our free emailed newsletter, The Sunrise, which includes all of our in-depth content and reporting from Idaho Capital Sun reporters, as well as reporting from our sister publications through our parent nonprofit States Newsroom and our D.C. bureau that brings you news from Capitol Hill each day.
What the legislative notebook will be is a quick and dirty run-down of which bills were introduced, considered in committee, debated on the Idaho House and Senate floors, and updates on whether Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed (or vetoed) major pieces of legislation into law.
It will also include any information we have on what Idahoans can expect in the following week of legislative action. Things can move very quickly during the session, especially toward the end of our legislators’ time in Boise (usually around the end of March or early April), and often agendas for committees are not posted until the evening before a committee meets. We’ll do the best we can to prepare you for the following week with that in mind.
We’ll also include a few fun observations that we have as we make our way through the session, including quotes and social media posts of the week, photos that may not make it into our usual coverage, and any other odds and ends that we find interesting or helpful to you as you track how legislators are spending their time.
And with that, let’s get started.
Idaho Gov. Little delivers State of the State, and the budget dominates legislative conversations in week one
The state budget – and projected multi-million dollar budget deficits for the current 2026 fiscal year and the upcoming 2027 fiscal year – have taken center stage in the Statehouse as the legislative session gets underway.
Very few bills were introduced or acted on this first week, but there was plenty of discussion about how the state is situated financially.
Is it a big deal that the state is facing a projected $40.3 million budget deficit for 2026 and a $555.2 million deficit for 2027? That depends on whom you ask.
Idaho House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, said Monday that he’s tired of the negative talk surrounding the state budget deficit. So are other Republicans in legislative leadership.
“This isn’t a big deal,” Moyle said at a GOP press conference. “It’s going to be easy to get through.”
But Democrats and some advocacy groups, especially groups that focus on Idahoans’ access to health care, paint a different picture entirely.
They say the budget crunch is self-inflicted due to the $450 million in tax cuts and tax credits approved by the Legislature and Idaho Gov. Brad Little in 2025, as well as $4 billion in income tax cuts that have been approved by lawmakers over the past five years.
They say the plans to close the gap, including the governor’s proposal to cut about $45 million from the state’s Medicaid program’s budget, harm everyday Idahoans who rely on those essential services. Some of those proposals include cuts to Medicaid’s dentistry services and cuts to programs that support people with disabilities.
Some Republicans, including Moyle, have said they would consider a full repeal of Medicaid expansion, which is how approximately 90,000 Idahoans access health insurance across the state.
While Little said he was not looking to repeal Medicaid expansion, and did not include full repeal in his budget proposal, House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said she is still deeply concerned about the impact of the budget cuts Idaho legislators will make to balance the budget.
“We are in a hole,” Rubel said at a Jan. 8 press conference. “There’s no question about it. We are $555 million below what we need to cover the most basic maintenance budgets to keep the lights on in our agencies.”
When should Idaho legislators set a state revenue projection?
The Legislature’s powerful budget committee, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, has fielded recent criticism from legislators of both parties and from stakeholders around Idaho because it set the state’s revenue projection late in the session last year. Essentially, critics say, the budget committee and Legislature passed tax cuts before having a clear picture of how much revenue the state had coming into its coffers and therefore didn’t know if the state could truly afford those cuts.
And after the budget committee met on Friday, some legislators are worried that a similar situation is playing out again in 2026.
On Thursday, the Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee voted to recommend a revenue projection of $5.8 billion for next year. Notably, that revenue target is about $137 million more than the revenue projection Gov. Little issued Monday in conjunction with his State of the State address.
The budget committee was scheduled to consider the revenue projection on Friday morning. However, without any public explanation, JFAC leaders started Friday’s meeting about 20 minutes late, pulled back their agenda for the day and removed the agenda item for the Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee’s report.
After Friday’s meeting adjourned, JFAC co-chairmen Sen. Scott Grow and Rep. Josh Tanner, both R-Eagle, said they wanted to give JFAC members more time to study the revenue recommendation, and it’s back on the agenda for JFAC on Monday.
Senate Pro Tem Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, at a Jan. 8 press conference, said setting the revenue projection early in the session is top of mind for legislative leaders.
“We’ve decided, as majority leadership, to try to do a better job this session (by) really hitting the revenue projection early and to work better with the governor’s office to try to get to that revenue number quickly,” Anthon said. “We’ll see how that goes, but that is the goal.”
In the State of the State Address, the governor said while this may be a tighter budget year than lawmakers have experienced in the recent past, he stressed the state is fiscally sound.
“The proof is clear – Idaho’s fundamentals remain among the strongest in the nation,” Little said. “Your dollar stretches farther here than anywhere else. Our unemployment rate is among the lowest in the nation. We lead in personal income growth, and our economic activity continues to outpace most states, reflecting a diverse and resilient economy. Jobs are growing, and Idaho’s healthy business climate remains a magnet for employers, talent, and investment.”
What to expect next week at the Idaho Legislature
Quick note: Many committees, especially at the beginning of the session, have agenda items known as an RS (which stands for routing slip). That’s legislative talk for “draft legislation.” An RS is not a public record until a committee votes to introduce the bill. Many of those agenda items are only listed by subject matter, so it’s impossible to ascertain what the RS is specifically about, other than the few words used to describe the RS until the introductory hearing takes place.
Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee
8 a.m. Monday: The committee is scheduled to discuss the state’s revenue projection recommendation from the Legislature’s Economic Outlook & Revenue Assessment Committee.
House State Affairs Committee
9 a.m. Monday: The committee is scheduled to hold introductory hearings on an RS relating to “signature gatherers, notice,” an RS relating to “Legislature, private counsel,” and an RS relating to “America 250 Celebration.”
House Health and Welfare Committee
9 a.m. Monday: The committee is scheduled to hold introductory hearings on an RS relating to “background checks,” an RS relating to the “Board of Podiatry” and an RS relating to “Controlled Substances Act update.”
House Judiciary and Rules Committee
1:30 p.m. Monday: The committee is scheduled to hold introductory hearings on an RS relating to “drones, correctional facilities” and an RS relating to “electric-assisted bicycles”
House Resources and Conservation Committee
1:30 p.m. Monday: The committee is scheduled to hold introductory hearings on an RS relating to “forest products commission,” an RS relating to “federal land policy, management,” and an RS relating to “soil and water conservation commission.”
Senate State Affairs Committee
8 a.m. Monday: The committee will consider the gubernatorial reappointment of Megan Ronk of Boise to the Idaho to the Commission on Human Rights and will consider the gubernatorial appointment of Salvador Cruz of Boise to the Treasurer’s Investment Advisory Committee.
Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee
1:30 p.m. Monday: The committee will consider the gubernatorial appointment of Scott Smith of Star and Dylan Hobson of Boise to the Commission of Pardons and Parole.
Senate Commerce and Human Resources Committee
1:30 p.m. Tuesday: The committee will consider the gubernatorial reappointment of Hyatt Erstad of Boise and Janice Fulkerson of Meridian to the Idaho Health Insurance Exchange Board, as well as the gubernatorial appointment of Cynthia Fairfax of Boise to the Idaho Health Insurance Exchange Board.
Quote of the week
“Our plan uses a responsible mix of one-time and ongoing spending reductions to keep the budget structurally sound. Across state government, executive agencies will tighten their belts. We’re renegotiating contracts to save money. We’re reprioritizing initiatives. We’re finding operational efficiencies, and we will make disciplined use of cash balances and interest earnings. All of this serves to limit the impact on Idahoans as we right-size government.” – Idaho Gov. Brad Little in his 2026 State of the State address
How to follow the Idaho Legislature and Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s work during the session
Here are a few tools we use to track the Legislature’s business and how to let your voice be heard in the issues that matter most to you.
How to find your legislators: To determine which legislative district you live in, and to find contact information for your legislators within that district, go to the Legislative Services Office’s website and put in your home address and ZIP code. Once you’ve entered that information, the three legislators – two House members and one senator – who represent your district will appear, and you can click on their headshots to find their email address and phone number.How to find committee agendas: Go to the Idaho Legislature’s website, legislature.idaho.gov, and click on the “all available Senate committee agendas” link and the “all available House committee agendas” link on the right side of the website. How to watch the legislative action in committees and on the House and Senate floors: Idaho Public Television works in conjunction with the Legislative Services Office and the Idaho Department of Administration through a program called “Idaho in Session” to provide live streaming for all legislative committees and for the House and Senate floors. To watch the action, go to https://www.idahoptv.org/shows/idahoinsession/Legislature/ and select the stream you’d like to watch.How to testify remotely at public hearings before a committee: To sign up to testify remotely for a specific committee, navigate to that committee’s webpage, and click on the “testimony registration (remote and in person)” tab at the top.How to find state budget documents: Go to Legislative Services Office Budget and Policy Analysis Division’s website https://legislature.idaho.gov/lso/bpa/budgetinformation/.How to track which bills have made it to Gov. Little’s desk and any action he took on them (including vetoes): Go to the governor’s website https://gov.idaho.gov/legislative-sessions/2026-session/. You can scroll down to the bottom of the site and enter your email address to get alerts sent straight to your inbox when the page has been updated.
Idaho Capital Sun reporters Clark Corbin, Laura Guido and Kyle Pfannenstiel contributed reporting to this story.
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.
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