Idaho Legislature misses target date for adjourning 2025 legislative session

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — As expected, Idaho legislators did not adjourn the 2025 legislative session by Friday’s targeted adjournment date and are reconvening today to begin the 12th week of the session.

Before the legislative session began, Republican legislative leaders set a nonbinding target date to adjourn the legislative session sine die on March 21.

Sine die is the Latin phrase legislators use when they adjourn without announcing a day to return, which signals the official end of the annual legislative session.

However, the fiscal year 2026 budget has not been completed as the powerful Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, grapples with a series of procedural changes that have created uncertainty over voting within the committee and delayed the budget-setting process.

JFAC sets every budget for every state agency and department. But this year, some members of JFAC and House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, have publicly feuded over budget and voting procedures while JFAC operates without having adopted formal joint legislative rules to guide the process and provide certainty over voting. 

State employee raises, revenue projection came later in the session

JFAC did not take action to set pay levels and raises for state employees until Feb. 6, which Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, said led to other budget delays down the line.

JFAC also did not set the 2026 revenue projection that the new budget is based around until March 5 – after a major income tax cut passed and several budgets had already been acted on, prompting complaints about the process from some JFAC members.

The Idaho Constitution requires Idaho legislators to pass a balanced budget where expenses do not exceed revenue.

Heading into today, the budget has not been finalized and JFAC is scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. today to set budgets for the Idaho State Historical Society, Idaho Legislative Services Office and the Office of the State Public Defender.

However, JFAC members made substantial progress last week during marathon morning budget-setting meetings and daily pre-dawn preparatory motion meetings.

JFAC members set and advanced the largest budgets in the state last week. On Monday, JFAC set the Medicaid budget, and on Friday JFAC set the K-12 public schools budgets. Those budgets will be sent next to the full Idaho Senate and Idaho House of Representatives for consideration.

In a show of gratitude, Rep. Wendy Horman, an Idaho Falls Republican who serves as co-chair, said JFAC’s co-chairs and vice chairs will provide lunch for the committee and budget staff today.

“This is a signal, yes, that we are almost done,” Horman said Friday. “We have a few budgets left to set (this) week. And we will, of course, take up those (budgets) that failed to move on our floors. But we are close to being done.”

Grow, the other JFAC co-chair, responded by saying “We are very optimistic.”

How much longer will the 2025 Idaho legislative session last?

So when will legislators adjourn? That’s anybody’s guess. Last week during early morning motion meetings that take place before JFAC’s normal 8 a.m. daily meeting, Grow was imploring members of the budget committee to build consensus and pass the remaining budgets. 

Grow’s message, repeated again and again, was simple. If you want to go home for the year, vote to pass the budgets.

But even after JFAC sets and passes budgets, it’s still not time to go home. Budget bills must also pass the full Idaho Senate and Idaho House of Representatives – which just killed two 2026 Idaho Department of Health and Welfare budget enhancements on the House floor Thursday.

Moyle, the speaker of the Idaho House, said the general rule of thumb is that it takes two weeks after JFAC finishes setting the budget to wind down the session. That time period allows for staffers to actually draft the budget bills themselves, and for the Idaho Senate and Idaho House to consider and vote on those budgets. If a major budget bill gets killed on the floor of either chamber, that would likely extend the session again.

Under that general rule of thumb, if JFAC hypothetically finished setting remaining budgets on Tuesday, two weeks later would be April 8.

Aside from setting the budgets, there is one final consideration for adjournment. In recent years, legislators have opted to take an approximately five-day recess immediately after they pass the final bill of the year, rather than immediately adjourning.

Going at recess rather than immediately adjourning allows legislators to return five days later and attempt to override any potential late session vetoes from Gov. Brad Little that they would not be able to act on if they adjourn outright.

Under that scenario, legislators could be looking at officially adjourning the 2025 legislative session sine die April 14 or April 15 – assuming the Idaho House or Idaho Senate does not kill one or more major budgets between now and then.

Today is the 78th day of the 2025 legislative session, which began on Jan. 6. There is no requirement to adjourn Idaho legislative sessions by a certain date, and there is no penalty for missing Friday’s adjournment target. However, most legislative sessions last for about 75 to 90 days.

The 2021 legislative session was the longest session in state history. That session was marked by extended recesses, but ran for 311 days and did not officially end until Nov. 17.

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