Legislative Update--Josh Wheeler

I was grateful to spend some time with many of our fine locally elected officials this past week. It is intensely helpful to hear their perspective on the specific challenges and opportunities our many fine communities are facing. I can tell how much they care to get things right back home. 

There have been some strong conversations already this week in the legislature. The discussion about funding private schools with public taxpayer dollars continues to advance. It is important that we get this conversation done right, with fairness, accountability, reasonableness and transparency. It is certainly part of a broader set of decisions we need to make about our schools and how to deliver the best outcomes for all Idaho parents and students. I would invite everyone to ask yourself a question posed to me earlier this week: If you could design our public education system from scratch today, what features would you most want to see? 

In the Health & Welfare committee this week, we covered a broad range of topics in the rules from genetic counseling, to Medicaid expansion, and on to bills dealing with nursing and assistant physicians throughout the state of Idaho. I was also encouraged to hear reports on the success that our state insurance exchange Your Health Idaho is finding throughout the state.

Bills are starting to appear on the floor. I was grateful to see us pass a bill dealing with bullying and providing improved support to parents. We passed an excellent bill to deal with improved cybersecurity requirements for statewide agencies, recognizing that the human element can still be one of the weakest points in our overall security, and we are addressing multiple bills that will reduce unused, outdated code, and diminish some of the regulatory burden on our citizens. 

One of the other privileges we had this week was to hear a presentation from the Idaho National Lab director, John Wagner. He gave an excellent presentation on the nation’s current nuclear capacity, with a forward look at what is coming in the next decade, and the difference it can make in all corners of the state. I particularly appreciated my fellow legislators level of engagement in that discussion, the questions they asked, and their obvious interest in seeing our state succeed in leadership of the nation’s nuclear mission.

I look forward to continuing my service to the people of district 35, and thank all of you for
your support.