Legislative Update

I am having so much fun with my internship in the Idaho House of Representatives. I love the opportunity I have to interact daily with important and impressive legislators, and to be a part of the discussion surrounding new legislation. There are now 6 bills that I have contributed significantly to which each have unanimously been approved to be printed and given a full debate and committee hearing. These bills are important, such as making Idaho only the second state in the country to have an online prescription drug monitoring database that allows pharmacists, practioners and law enforcement agencies to track potential drug abuse in real time. Other bills require insurance companies to provide coverage for cleft lip/palate procedures and treatment dealing with inborn errors of metabolism. Yesterday Rep. Henbest did a wonderful job introducing a bil that would limit the amount of junk food schools are allowed to sell to students in vending machines. She actually received a lot of positive press for the issue, including three TV interviews. I was proud that not only was the info I found for her useful in answering the questions that arose, but it helped the reporters frame our bill in such a positive light. Check out this article for example. You can read the full text of each bill by following the following links to House Bill # 614, 615, 616, 644, 667 and House Concurrent Resolution 041. If you scroll down to the bottom of each link you'll see the Statement of Purpose and the Fiscal Impact of each bill, which I wrote for all except 667. This picture was from a press conference led by Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennet (at the mic), responding to Pres. Bush's new budget proposal which includes provisions allowing for the government selling of public land. This would essentially eliminate regular citizens from having access to huge chunks of the State, including some of the most beautiful and popular. I admired the Democratic caucus for taking a stance on the issue and calling for a press conference. It was especially fun to see the coverage that night on the news and to see this picture on Betsy Russell's wonderful blog (http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/boise/).