Bill requiring state agencies to recommend laws for removal advances

A new bill that would require all Idaho state agencies to recommend outdated, obsolete or unnecessary laws for the Idaho Legislature to consider removing is advancing to the Idaho House for a vote.

House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, is sponsoring the new bill, House Bill 14, the Idaho Code Cleanup Act. Moyle said the bill is intended to be an Idaho version of the federal Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short, that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have championed.

Moyle said Idaho state agencies have already reviewed and recommended unnecessary administrative rules to repeal. The new bill takes that effort a step forward by asking agencies to review all of the relevant laws, statutes and codes that they enforce and recommend laws for the Idaho Legislature to remove.

The bill includes a Sept. 1 deadline for agencies to recommend laws for removal.

“They need to review it for things that are outdated, obsolete and unnecessary,” Moyle said Tuesday. “The goal is to clean up the code books that are behind you there and to make the statutes … easier to read and clean up some of the problems that are there.”

With little debate, the House State Affairs Committee voted Tuesday to send House Bill 14 to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives with a recommendation to pass it.

If the House votes to pass the bill, it would be sent next to the Idaho Senate for consideration.

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