Idaho lawmakers want a say over federal grants that could go into medical education

Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on March 10, 2026

BOISE, Idaho — For much of the session, legislators have been haggling over how to have a say over the way Idaho spends $930 million in rural health grants.

A new bill emerged Tuesday morning.

Introduced unanimously in the House Health and Welfare Committee, this bill follows a similar version from the Senate and would create a legislative committee to oversee Idaho’s federal Rural Healthcare Transformation grants. The money could have far-reaching implications — and could factor into Idaho’s medical education debate.

The two Rural Health Transformation Committee bills differ slightly.

The Senate version would create a seven-person panel: three senators, three House members and a nonvoting member appointed by Gov. Brad Little. At least three of the legislators would need to come from a legislative district “without a population center of 20,000 or more persons” — wording designed to ensure rural representation.

Under the House version, the panel would be larger — with four senators, four House members and a nonvoting gubernatorial appointee. The House bill doesn’t have the same rural wording.

Legislative leaders are committed to having rural representatives on the panel, said Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, who is co-sponsoring the House bill with Health and Welfare Committee Chairman John Vander Woude, R-Nampa.

The committee will be bipartisan, Redman told House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, even though the bill says nothing about this. “I was assured that there will be a member of the minority party,” Redman said.

The House bill comes more than a month after the Senate’s version made its debut. Senate Bill 1264 has been parked on the Senate’s calendar since Feb. 13. On Tuesday, Redman told House Health and Welfare members that the bill will probably not get a vote.

The rural transformation money is a component of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. Idaho was awarded its share of the money in late December, and it will have five years to spend it.

Some lawmakers already have eyes on the money — with a view to a shortage that leaves Idaho ranked No. 50 in the nation in physicians per capita. They have suggested that Idaho could use the federal money to cover the cost of new Idaho residencies for medical school graduates. And that, in turn, would free up state dollars to subsidize additional medical school seats for Idaho students.

In January, Rep. Dustin Manwaring also suggested the state could use rural healthcare funds to acquire its own medical school — namely, the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Meridian. The for-profit ICOM is not for sale, but Idaho State University and some lawmakers have made no secret of their interest in a purchase. A medical education task force, co-chaired by Manwaring, R-Pocatello, incorporated a possible ICOM purchase into its January report to Little and the Legislature.