Well, that was interesting. There was a bit of a parliamentary dust-up on the House floor just now, over the targeted picketing bill, HB 195, and a new version that goes after “doxing,” HB 288, that publicizes someone’s home address in an effort to get people to go there and harass them. Although HB 288 was first proposed as an alternative to HB 195, after both ended up in the House Judiciary Committee together, the committee voted to send both to the full House for consideration. This morning, House Judiciary Chair Greg Chaney, R-Caldwell, asked unanimous consent to move HB 288 to general orders, the House’s amending order, to let it die there. “It is my desire to ask my colleagues to vote on but one bill on this topic,” Chaney told the House. “The other bill … is the more succinct and well-written one, with the greatest amount of committee support.”
Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, objected, so Chaney made the request as a motion.
Scott told the House, “The committee made the decision to send it to the floor. … It should be voted on just like any other.”
Chaney responded, “The committee did consider both this bill and the other bill. It is not without consultation with members of the committee that we’re doing this. The two pieces of legislation address the same overall thing. … This debate would be very long, arduous and perhaps duplicative if we debated both bills. I believe the same underlying target behavior is inherent in both, and in the interest of our efficiency as a body, it would be productive to only have that debate once. The other bill that’s not being moved has the stronger committee support, so I am taking into consideration the will of the committee.”
At that point, House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, asked to put the House at ease, and it went at ease for a rather long break. After that, Chaney made a new motion: To lay HB 288 on the table. House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, explained that that is a non-debatable motion, which requires just a majority to pass; to take back up a bill that’s been laid on the table requires a two-thirds vote. Chaney’s motion to lay HB 288 on the table then passed unanimously, 68-0.
Scott then immediately made another motion: To lay HB 195 on the table. It failed, 16-52. So HB 195 remains on the House’s 2nd Reading Calendar. That means it could come up for a debate and vote tomorrow, or sooner if the House chose to suspend its rules.
HB 195 is aimed at protests at people’s homes, spurred by noisy and unruly demonstrations in the past year at the homes of area public officials and a Meridian police officer.
Betsy Z. Russell is the Boise bureau chief and state capitol reporter for the Idaho Press and Adams Publishing Group. Follow her on Twitter at @BetsyZRussell.
