Admonished lawmaker apologizes to Idaho House

A northern Idaho lawmaker apologized to her fellow House members Wednesday for her inappropriate comments that caused her to be stripped of all three of her legislative committee assignments.

Rep. Heather Scott, a Republican from Blanchard, says that she should have chosen her words more carefully. Scott added that she will be committed to using “words of a statesman” in the future.

House Speaker Scott Bedke announced on the House floor that Scott would no longer serve on legislative committees last week. The decision came after Scott commented to another female lawmaker that women only move up in the Legislature by trading sexual favors.

Several days later, five other lawmakers asked to be removed from their committees until Scott was reinstated. Bedke declined to grant those requests.

Scott says she’s asking leadership to help keep the situation from spinning further out of control.