Idaho lawmakers will again consider whether to further restrict public health districts’ ability to implement public health measures.
Two bills proposed by Rep. Jacyn Gallagher, R-Weiser, would limit ways for public health districts to prevent the spread of a disease. House Bill 396, which Gallagher introduced Tuesday, would ban state agencies or “political subdivisions” from mandating masks. Gallagher also introduced a separate bill, House Bill 392, to limit the authority of health districts to address public health crises.
Face masks have been used widely during the COVID-19 pandemic and at times have been required in parts of Idaho. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends masking to prevent contracting or spreading COVID-19, especially when hospital admission levels are high and depending on a person’s level of risk.
Gallagher told lawmakers House Bill 392 would place a small limit on public health districts’ ability “to do anything and everything that they want to do whenever they want to do it.”
“I want to go to my doctor to tell me what to do with my body instead of a health district telling me what I can or cannot do,” Gallagher said, adding later, “I think that the purpose of this is less power to this body and more individual choice.”
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly tried to ban public health practices since the pandemic began, with some success. Gov. Brad Little signed a law last year banning most employers — public and private — from mandating vaccines as a condition of employment.
Lawmakers introduced two bills banning mask mandates in 2022, both of which failed to become law. Then- Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin briefly issued an executive order banning masks in 2021, on a day when Little was out of town and she became acting governor. Little reversed her order and called it a “political stunt” a day later.
At a Tuesday committee hearing, Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, said he has questions about how the mask ban would apply in certain situations and doesn’t want it to be “rushed.”
“We’ve had these come in the past years,” he said. “I like the concept, but I have questions on this.”
The bill exempts hospitals or health care facilities but would impact public health districts, school districts, cities and state agencies and boards.
“If masks don’t work and they’re so bad and ineffective, then why did you exempt hospitals and health care facilities?” Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, told the Idaho Statesman. “If they’re important enough to allow a hospital or health facility to mandate masks, why aren’t they important enough in other contexts?”
He called the proposal an “extreme bill” to make “hard and fast rules” that have the “potential to interfere with reasonable solutions where death or serious infection is possible.”
“You’re tying the hands of future decision-makers who might be facing a very, very difficult and serious situation,” he said.
The U.S. has faced a large COVID-19 surge in recent weeks, and wastewater data in Boise shows the surge may be approaching the levels of last winter’s surge. Hospitals in Idaho reported 87 patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases last week, according to state data. The CDC registers Idaho’s COVID-19 hospital admissions level as “medium.”
