[Vision2020] Idaho House to hear giant salamander bill

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (March 19, 2015) Spokesman-Review.

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Idaho House to hear giant salamander bill
BOISE – An Idaho House committee on Wednesday abruptly reversed itself and overwhelmingly passed a bill proposed by an Idaho eighth-grader to make the Idaho giant salamander the official state amphibian. 

The bill now moves to the full House with a recommendation that it pass.

Rep. Gayle Batt, R-Wilder, and House State Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, both said they decided on the change a day earlier when the House passed a resolution marking “National Diaper Need Awareness Week.”

“I turned to my seatmate and said, ‘If we have time for a diaper bill, we have time to hear the salamander,’” Batt said. 

Rep. Don Cheatham, R-Post Falls, who opposed HB 1 in January citing fear of “federal overreach,” switched his vote and supported the bill on Wednesday, as did Reps. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Shannon McMillan, R-Silverton. 

“I was new to Idaho, really, and the Legislature,” Cheatham explained. “I was trying to show my commitment to the state of Idaho.” 

Fourteen-year-old Ilah Hickman has been pushing for the designation since she studied the issue as a fourth-grader; she’s returned to the Legislature each year to present her bill. Last year, Ilah’s bill passed the Senate on a 33-2 vote, but never got a committee hearing in the House.

This year, the House State Affairs Committee held a hearing just a week into the legislative session, but the bill died on a 10-6 vote. On Wednesday, there were just two “no” votes, from Reps. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, and Ken Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs.

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Idaho House Bill 1



http://www.moscowcares.com/Idaho_Legislature/HouseBill01_StateAmphibian_011915.jpg

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Fourteen-year-old Ilah Hickman

https://www.facebook.com/IdahoGiantSalamanderForStateAmphibian/photos/a.431533353599229.1073741825.431533256932572/707862885966273/?type=1&source=11

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"How is gerrymandering like a salamander? In 1812, Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a law that established an odd-shaped Congressional district. It was redrawn by political cartoonists into a salamander-type creature and thus the term gerrymander was born."

- Eldridge Gerry
 


Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still.
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
  
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