Idaho House stalls again amid lawmaker infighting, conflicts

The Idaho House came to a grinding halt for the second time this week after members attempted to force the body’s hand to vote on a previously blocked bill.

The nearly hour-long fight over whether or not to debate the bill Wednesday resulted with Majority Leadership Mike Moyle reprimanding the body’s far-right members that their attempts would lead the House into anarchy. This sparked objections from far-right Republicans, who countered they were using the proper legislative rules to conduct the debate.

The tension began when Rep. Ron Nate, a Republican from Rexburg, asked House Speaker Scott Bedke to pull a bill from the House Ways and Means Committee onto the House floor for a full vote even though the proposal had not yet been vetted by the panel.

Far-right Republicans and Democrats have long complained that legislative leaders routinely block bills they find don’t agree with politically.