After Gov. Little vetoes Idaho ‘medical freedom’ bill, Legislature pursues tweaks

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — Four days after Idaho Gov. Brad Little vetoed a bill that would’ve banned medical intervention mandates — including vaccines, medical treatment or medicine — by businesses, governments, schools and colleges, the Idaho Legislature’s immediate path forward to respond remains unclear.

The governor vetoed the bill Saturday. 

On Monday, the Idaho Senate introduced a new tweaked version of the bill. On Tuesday, the Idaho House made a similar move. 

But the Senate has not officially attempted to override the governor’s veto; the original bill narrowly passed the Senate and would need broader support to pass a veto override, which requires two-thirds support in each legislative chamber. 

Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon, R-Rupert, hasn’t ruled out a vote to override the governor’s veto on the bill, he told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon. But first, he said, lawmakers are focused on working with the governor “to come up with language that is doable.”

Asked if the Senate would override the governor’s veto, Anthon told the Sun “It very well could happen. But until we know that the road … is completely at a dead end, you won’t see that happen. I think you’re going to first see, ‘Can we work with the governor to come up with language that is doable?’ But you may not want to play that card or give up that leverage until you know you can’t work out a deal.”

RELATED | Idaho AG Labrador wants lawmakers to override Gov. Little’s veto of ‘medical freedom’ bill

Revised legislation surfaces in both the Idaho House and Senate

The Senate’s revised bill, Senate Bill 1210, exempts day cares and adds language specifying the school medical mandate ban provision is subject to various other Idaho laws that let school boards block sick students from attending, spell out parental rights, and more. The House’s revised bill, House Bill 472, adds language specifying that the bill wouldn’t overrule existing powers of school districts, or school board trustees — as already granted in Idaho law.

To become law, Idaho bills must pass the House and Senate, and avoid the governor’s veto.

Right now, the Legislature is in the middle of a negotiation, Anthon told the Sun, and he doubts the new bills will become law as drafted.

“I personally think that none of those bills, as printed, will end up becoming law,” he said.

The new bills appear to be competing versions of revised bills that attempt to address the governor’s concerns over the original vetoed bill. 

Explaining his veto of the original bill, Senate Bill 1023, Little said he valued medical freedom but worried that the bill “removes parents’ freedom to ensure their children stay healthy at school because it jeopardizes the ability of schools to send home sick students with highly contagious conditions,” including measles. 

The Idaho governor’s office couldn’t be immediately reached for comment about how much either bill addresses Little’s concerns over the original bill, called the Idaho Medical Freedom Act.

“Once the bill got vetoed … we start down a road where we try to figure out ‘What’s a bill that can actually pass both Houses?” Anthon told the Sun. “And so you start to see the clamor of legislation.”

The Idaho Legislature is more than a week past Republican leadership’s nonbinding goal to adjourn, or end, this year’s legislative session on March 21 — largely due to budgeting delays by the Legislature’s powerful budget committee, the Sun previously reported. 

RELATED | Gov. Little boasts ‘medical freedom’ in Idaho, vetoes bill to ban vaccine mandates

 Senate revised bill pulled last minute from committee agenda

On Tuesday afternoon, the revised Senate bill was scheduled to be considered in the Senate State Affairs Committee, where it could’ve been advanced to the full Senate for a vote. But the meeting was canceled. 

Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, cosponsored the original bill that the governor vetoed and the revised Senate bill. He declined to comment on the bill’s future to the Sun on Tuesday. 

Senate State Affairs Committee Chairman Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, told the Sun in a Tuesday interview that Foreman had asked him to remove the bill from the committee’s agenda. But Guthrie said he didn’t know Foreman’s reasons.

Anthon, the top Senate Republican, told the Sun that Foreman “is working really, really hard to get a policy across the finish line that effectuates, at the end of the day, the goal — and the goal is to get that medical freedom piece in place.”

“How to fine tune that language to get all of the different players happy is very difficult. So there’s a negotiation taking place,” Anthon said. “Sometimes you have to throw out a piece of legislation to get people to the table. So Senator Forman has done that. It looks like the House has done that a couple of times now. And once that piece of legislation is printed, the dialog starts. So I think we’re just in the middle of a process.”

Idaho AG, who lost a challenge to Gov. Little, urged Legislature to override veto

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador on Monday urged the Idaho Legislature to override the governor’s veto, calling the bill “the defining bill of this session.”

“Five years ago, COVID-19 brought chaos: lockdowns, mandates, business closures, school shutdowns, and restrictions that crushed our freedom,” Labrador said in a prepared statement. “In hindsight, the damage to our society, children, and economy was far worse than the virus itself. I ran for Attorney General because our State failed to protect our citizens from government overreach. The legislature now has the opportunity to do the right thing.”

Labrador is a former U.S. House of Representatives member. In 2018, he lost a Republican primary governor’s election challenge to Little. In 2022, Labrador was elected as Idaho attorney general. 

Idaho Freedom Action, the lobbying arm of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, also supported a legislative veto override. Before Little vetoed the bill, Idaho Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon urged people to ask Little to sign the bill.

How the bill works: Banning medical intervention mandates — beyond vaccines

Both bills introduced this week modify a bill that previously passed the Legislature, and was vetoed by Little. 

The original bill would have banned businesses and any Idaho governments — local, county or state — from requiring medical interventions for employment, admission to venues, transportation, or providing products or services. 

The bill would’ve also extended to schools in Idaho — private or public — and colleges, universities and trade schools, blocking them from requiring medical interventions for school attendance, employment, or entrance into campus or school buildings.

The new broader medical intervention requirement ban the governor vetoed would have expanded on a previous Idaho law banning COVID vaccine requirements, which Little signed in 2023, despite its similarities to one he vetoed a year earlier, the Idaho Statesman reported.

This year’s broader bill — amended twice — was cosponsored by Sen. Foreman and Rep. Robert Beiswenger, R-Horseshoe Bend. Health Freedom Defense Fund President and Founder Leslie Manookian wrote the bill. 

Under the bill, medical interventions include “a procedure, treatment, device, drug injection, medication, or action taken to diagnose, prevent, or cure a disease or alter the health or biological function of a person.” 

Business medical intervention mandates for employment would still be allowed in a few excepted circumstances, including in certain federal travel scenarios if jobs require entry into facilities that require medical interventions, or if required by federal law. 

The bill would also exempt medical intervention bans in situations where employers require “personal protection equipment, items, or clothing … based on existing traditional and accepted industry standards or federal law.” But the bill says COVID-era requirements, such as for masks or vaccines, are not exempt from the ban.

The bill would allow the Idaho attorney general or county prosecuting attorneys to enforce the law through injunctive relief, which are essentially civil court actions issued in lawsuits.

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