Legislative Session Recap
Main Street Town Hall Episode 14—Representative Marco Erickson
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Fresh from the end of the legislative session, Marco Erickson from District 33 returns to the studio to recap the successes and contentions he faced on the House floor. Host and Executive Director, Brennan Summers, digs into what made Representative Erickson's bills so widely supported by the majority of fellow legislators, as well as some of the opposition he faced in his pursuit to remedy women's healthcare in Idaho.
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Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome to the Idaho Main Street podcast. We are here live in studio. It's been a long time since we've had a guest in person because you've guys have all been over in sessions. We've been doing it via Zoom.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (00:22):
We've been in Boise since early January. You're here, nice to be in person. Finally home.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (00:26):
Yes. This is great. I guess this is Representative Mark Erickson, district 33, representative seat. Be there. And that's the heart of I Falls, correct? Yeah. Thanks for being here. Thank you. We tried to snag you a few times during the session, but you had a very full calendar.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (00:41):
Yes. My calendar fills up so fast. I tell people they would call and say, can I get an appointment? I'm like, well, about two weeks maybe
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (00:48):
It was bad as my doctor, it was bad. Just less qualified to treat the rash on my back. That's true.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (00:53):
Wouldn't want to do that. Actually. I'd run away from that
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (00:57):
Representative. You said we could ask you anything today, but happy to. You qualified that with saying, accept your social security number. Social security numbers. We're going to throw the hard hitting questions at you. We'll start with how was the session?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (01:07):
Session is always fun for me. I enjoy it a lot. It is just some stressful times as well. That's good happen every year, but I enjoy it. I really do. I get along with all the people there more than most, I think. Yeah.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (01:20):
Now, how does it compare to other sessions that you've had in the past? This
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (01:25):
One was interesting. It was a little more contentious amongst our own colleagues inside our own caucus. I think there was some early contention got worked out mostly some of it carried on, but that was tough to witness and to be a part of, but at least we were able to work that out,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (01:43):
Especially as the peacemaker that you are. Yes,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (01:46):
Very true. I was always trying to do that.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (01:49):
Let's talk about some of the legislation that you were able to work through this session. What are some of the bills that you're most proud of?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (01:54):
Well, I mean, I do a lot of little things. I think most proud, I'm always most proud that most of my bills I run get all the members' support. I don't have to go around and talk to everybody because I kind of get a feel for the room. I know how they're going to vote on it. So I was blessed to pass most of my bills with full support of the body. So the Fentanyl test strip bill was probably the biggest one. They had been trying to do that for a long time. It was the right timing. We had just passed the fentanyl minimum mandatory sentencing bill, and that in mind was more of a trailer to say, Hey, since we've done that, here's one that will save people's lives in the public. Give them ability to test the different products that they purchase, whether it be drugs or let's say they go over to Mexico or they purchase lower cost prescription drugs. That happens occasionally. So they would still be able to test it. There's been cases in America of simple things like a Botox treatment, having fentanyl it and people dying because of that, so they get a cheaper version. So you got to test stuff now. This is a tough time in the world. So we've opened that up and hopefully it'll be used for good.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (03:04):
Oh, for sure. So we talked at length with some of your colleagues about the mandatory minimums and how the goal is to help lower trafficking of Fentanyl act as a deterrent, but we haven't gotten too much into the fentanyl strips. So as you said, this is an opportunity for Idahoans can now have access these strips. Where would I need to go if I didn't get
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (03:22):
My hand on surprising? You could buy 'em anywhere before you could get 'em on Amazon. It was like $10 for a pack of 12 of those test strips, so less than a dollar a piece. And it would be worth it for me if I were to, let's say, because the most common thing you would do is most people would buy a cheaper version of a prescription drug. So in America, it might cost you a hundred dollars and you might find it in Mexico and you're getting it for 40. And so you're going to want to spend that extra dollar and test the product to make sure you're safe and clear from fentanyl. You just can't know. Or kids, let's say kids, they like to go to parties a lot and they're interacting with people. They do things that aren't always the smartest, but if they had that option and they had one extra safety mechanism, even adults as well, just I would recommend 'em use that. So we'd push that out there and say, Hey, if you want purchase these test strips, save a life. Right?
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (04:17):
Yeah. Such a small quantity of fentanyl could be so lethal.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (04:20):
Very, it's this amount at the tip of a pencil tip,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (04:23):
Crazy to think about. It's very
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (04:24):
Teeny
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (04:25):
And a lot of the overdoses are accidental. They don't realize that it was laced with stuff.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (04:30):
Most people don't know. And another thing that happens is if they share a pill, let's say they cut it in half, one half was a lethal dose and the other half was not. It's kind of like we joke about being like, you're making a chocolate chip cookie. You throw it in there and it gets mixed up. You don't get the same amount of a chocolate chip and every single cookie and every single bite, and that's what fentanyl's like in the different products that are out there. So it's very dangerous and we don't want to see any more overdose deaths in Idaho.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (04:57):
No, we don't. And now I'm craving chocolate chip cookies. So thanks for that.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (05:01):
At least it's not the brownie we talked about last time.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (05:03):
Now that other legislation you were proud to get signed by the governor?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (05:07):
Well, I worked with Senator Van Orden on the Baby Box one. That was really great. It was something that everyone supported because it was a pro-life approach, pro-family approach. People were in tears when we were in committee presenting those, and it was just such a happy bill to present for everybody.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (05:28):
Walk us through what that legislation does.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (05:30):
It allows for them to create these boxes. They're devices. Safe Haven boxes allows them to place a baby in a box that it's connected to the wall of a building, so it's a safe and secure spot. The minute you place a baby in that safe location, you'll be told that that's where you would do it. If you were going to place a baby somewhere, then that machine will lock, so no one could come from the outside and take the baby out and steal the baby. It would immediately trigger 9 1 1 and allow, or the people in the facility, so they would know that a baby has been placed in the box. They would come down and check it out medically and then walk through the proper processes, keep it in their possession for 30 days before they can adopt it out. But then potentially in that same time, they'd be looking to find adoptive parents.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (06:26):
So there are a lot of babies getting dropped off on doorsteps in
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (06:29):
Idaho. Well, no. I talked to a few firemen, first responders that had been captains or chiefs at their local fire districts, and they had indicated to me in their career happened three or four times, and that was just one district. So across the state, who knows once a year, twice a year, five times a year maybe, but one time that we get a safe baby and maybe place it with a family who had been waiting for long time to have a baby, that's a great option for people. So we figured why not? And what's great is most local foundations fund that themselves and the group. So it doesn't cost taxpayers any money. It's just an extra way of promoting the adoption for families. Yeah.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (07:13):
Oh, that's fantastic. You had some more bills too that you were happy about.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (07:17):
Well, I always have bills I'm working on, I'm trying to remember. Shoot, I pulled over a few Senate bills. I did do some stuff with juvenile corrections and dispatchers, making sure that their Percy benefits were improved because a few years ago we did a bill and the supervisors got left out of that. So we fixed that, made that the final class that would ever enter into the rule of 80 means to get a little bit early retirement. And so we fixed that. I did a fix update to one of my bills from last year, which was Isolation and Seclusion bill. It was designed to make it to where schools wouldn't spank kids and whack 'em up beside the hand and then push 'em into closets and things like that. And we didn't want to tie the teacher's hands and have no discipline. That was never the intent.
(08:06):
But some of them took that bill to mean they couldn't do any restraint ever. And so we just clarified the language saying, yeah, you can restrain him. You just have to inform the parents right away and then let 'em go do the process that's proper and you can still take care of that. You don't have to exit all the other kids from the classroom. And the teachers, I think were really grateful that we updated that language so it was more clear and they can still engage in discipline. And a lot of the legislators that were kind of against that last year thanked us and said, yeah, and they all supported it this year. So I was really happy to, I didn't expect that and I was grateful and they just came to me and said, thanks for always being willing to hear people and listen to their concerns and work on that. So even my own bills, I'll take and fix and update if I need to.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (08:53):
And your career, your professional career has been spent helping kids. It's youth treatment. It's the counseling and the substance abuse and everything to get these kids back on the right track. And that's been reflected in your political career because a lot of the priorities you have are how do we make sure that some of the most vulnerable of our population, these young kiddos are getting the stuff that they need, right?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (09:15):
Yeah. Almost everything you're going to see me do. If I'm carrying it and it's my bill and I've worked on it, it's going to have something to do with making people's lives better and trying to save the government money. So there's always tweaks and systems. We create systems, we can change systems, and I think sometimes we get stuck in the rut of just how the system was. And I'm a big fan of analyzing that and go, no, we should probably change things up a little bit. And sometimes that's a minor policy change. Sometimes that's a major change to the entire program, and so you have to look at it from all angles and be willing to do the hard stuff and convince your colleagues that sometimes change is necessary. So one of the big things I did this year with that was I like to commission studies occasionally from the, I forget the Office of Performance Evaluation, OPE.
(10:08):
So two years ago I did a, or no, four years ago in my first year, I did a study. I had 'em do on juvenile justice so that they can give me some outcomes reports and we could take a look at what we can change. Well, this year we had some major problems with some of these group homes that the state is taking custody and they're placing kids in, and they were experiencing abuse, neglect, and sometimes sexual abuse and things where we were just shocked that that could happen under a state's watch. So I asked for a study a little deeper into that for a statewide approach so that we could see what's going on and why that's happening and take care of it and fix it with policy so it doesn't happen in the future.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (10:50):
I read an article in the paper that was talking just about that study that's being done, the investigation. When do we expect to see results of it?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (10:57):
Well, they got two other ones they're going to put priority on. I think the schools were top priority because they wanted to do a study to see if a four day week versus five day week, that was real important. Also, they wanted to look into Luma, which has been a big disaster. It was a new finance management system the state was using, and most employees across the whole state had major problems with it. So they're focused on those two, but then they'll get to ours next. Ours was the top priority picked by the committee, so I was proud of that. I didn't expect that when there were six proposals and ours was picked as the top priority one. So that was
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (11:32):
Good. Yeah. So the session ended last week, was it Friday
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (11:36):
Mostly? Yes. On Friday. They may come back this week, but I am going to be tied up in other responsibilities.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (11:43):
So session, I mean, if they come back, is it just veto override?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (11:48):
Yeah, and I think that's the intent in case, but as far as I know right now, there hasn't been any vetoes as of today.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (11:53):
Yeah, I read that the governor vetoed a gold and silver bill. Oh,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (11:58):
Maybe he did today. I
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (11:59):
Hadn't read that yet. I don't suspect that veto override on the bill though as I was looking at it,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (12:02):
Most likely not.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (12:04):
But I mean, even with the session being over, you'd think, okay, job's done. You book a flight to Cancun and put your feet up, but you're not. No, no,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (12:11):
No.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (12:12):
Why is that?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (12:13):
I'm always, the minute I'm done with one thing, I've got another thing planned. So that was really hard for me to go with extra two weeks of session because I was working on some, writing some grants for our organization, making sure the funding was there. There's a lot of technical writing and also gathering of signatures is from people that you work with and collaborate with. So there's a lot involved in those processes. So I spent hundreds of hours working on that in the last few weeks. So I was that session, it took away from my ability to do that. And then I had other trips planned. I go speak, people ask me to speak because I'm a legislator, but also because of my professional background. And I've had to cancel one of those recently because it was just, I was going from one to another.
(12:59):
This week we have the Idaho Drug Prevention Conference, which I've been going to that almost 25 years, but it's in Sun Valley. And while I'm there, I figure I have most of my colleagues there who I'm working with on other legislative projects already. So I email them and create an agenda, send them out some ideas and say, Hey guys, we're going to meet at this location at this time, that Thursday, and we'll be right back into working on things for the next session. So we're preparing ahead of time. So when we come together right in January, we've got this stuff ready to go, and everybody's already talked about it. We're all ready to testify on behalf of what projects we support and why, and we're unified and there isn't a lot of opposition. So that's the best way to be a legislator, always working on things.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (13:47):
Yeah, that's crazy to think that you're already gearing up for the session that will start January 25. Yes. Do you have some things in mind that you're thinking, we didn't get this done, but we need to?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (13:58):
Yeah, there's a lot we didn't get done. One of the things, obviously better quality healthcare for the women, women's health is a big issue, and we were trying to move some stuff forward this year, but because there's a federal lawsuit that's going into a Supreme Court case, they didn't want to allow anything to move forward. And I find that, I think that's the biggest disappointment of this whole session. There was some things we needed to do to do a better job there. So we're working on that ahead of time. We're working on some justice reform. We've been seeing some things really working well with juveniles, and I'm talking to some partners in law enforcement and in the prosecutor's offices, local courts and judicial system, seeing if there's some way we can run a potential pilot project, a couple of them, one of them in the prisons. And if we see good results that we can move those more universal across the state, and they're all designed to help the inmates have maximum outcomes, get back into the community at a maximum capacity in a good way, and then also have just better savings of dollars for the state, less people going into the prisons. So all of that together. And there's several of us legislators working on that together from this area in eastern Idaho. So we do collaborate outside of session. People don't always know that, but we do. Yeah.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (15:19):
Is that the pilot program? Would that be the Ignite program that they're doing?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (15:23):
Absolutely. Yeah. The Ignite program from the sheriff's office is a big part of that. I just was talking with the sheriff just this morning about that, and I said, Hey, I would like you to come present that to our group that's working, because then they're all informed and it's going really well. So yeah, that's definitely one of the programs
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (15:39):
As I've spent time with the sheriff on it and learned more about it to reduce recidivism is so important. But it's also when you look at the individual and think, man, rather than the revolving door of our incarceration facilities, what if we could bring 'em out and have 'em contributing, become taxpayers and get 'em out and help in society?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (15:55):
We always say there's a balance of justice and mercy, and we want to do our best to have that mercy early on, but we have to have justice too. So when we find that balance, serve those families and keep 'em out of systems as much as possible, have them right their wrongs and learn and move forward. But the more we enter 'em into systems, the more they're stuck in there. So getting them treatment and looking at their readiness, working with them where they're at, you can't just force people to go down a new road and a new path, but you can help 'em encourage them. I used to say this old saying, we had out on the farms, they'd say, you lead a horse to water, but you can't make a drink. I says, well, I could put a salt lick out there and make it really thirsty. And I think it's the same concept with people that when they see this golden thing out there, golden carrot, that's going to make their life better and they have the option to choose that they're likely to go that route with a little bit of positive motivation.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (16:54):
Yeah, because where would any of us be without second chances? Yeah,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (16:56):
Exactly. We would all be in a hard time.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (16:58):
We definitely would be. Let's circle back to this women's healthcare issue. I know you speak with local physicians a lot. For those that are tuning in that are familiar with the pro-Life, pro-choice debate, but might not be familiar with what the challenges in Idaho with women's healthcare, walk us through what we need to fix or what's been going on.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (17:17):
Well, OB docs, we could start there. Doctors are struggling. They're worried that they're going to get sued all the time that they might have a legal lawsuit against them. And so it's not incentivizing new people to come around here and say, Hey, I want to do that treatment and help women who are specialized. Our family doctors can do so much they can provide, but they're not specialists in the way that those OB docs are. So we have a gap there. And they can't do a C-section, for example, when there's complications. And so you have higher risk when you don't have the people to do the work. And I really worry when we go too extreme and we're not able to take care of our physicians that we have and they're having to worry about getting sued over something that they know is medically necessary. They're not pushing an agenda or trying one way or the other. Their patients have a specific need and they need to meet that need.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (18:17):
Yeah, we're not talking elective abortions here. We're talking about their doctors who, because of definition and statute or that are now second guessing or struggling to know what the right decision is with the life of a woman because of
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (18:29):
Legal implications. And it's taken them longer to make those decisions, whereas before they just know what to do. But they have to go through now and make sure that they're covering themselves legally. They've got all the paperwork in order, and they're justifying every decision they make, and it's a little tougher on them. It's causing more administrative time, and they have to worry about each and every one of their staff in that room that's assisting them in their liability. So it's a burden we placed on 'em, unintentional, and we haven't fixed it yet, so people are waiting for us to fix it. And in the meantime, there are some spots in the state where we've lost the ability more in the rural areas as people are aging out in those rural communities and not as many people are moving there. And so it's not always fiscally sound for them and a good business practice for, so that's a factor. And then also population growth than a new baby's being born. Current generation isn't having as many babies, so when you get to those rural communities, it changes them and their business models have to adjust with that. So it's been a struggle world. We've lost a few physicians that are doing that work.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (19:40):
So the hope is that once the case has worked its way through the Supreme Court, then Idaho will be able to change language in the statutes.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (19:47):
That's what we're told. I had a bill before we went to a couple years ago, we had a bill ready to go and we could have done some stuff, but there were some special interest groups that got involved. And Chairman sometimes allow those guys to have too much influence. I feel that we're the lawmakers and we should have just pushed that through because some of those chairman to hear their voices more than and they couldn't get along. And they were both pro-life groups. When you have two pro-life groups and they can't even agree, that's problematic. We're all pro-life. We're trying to help. But this has been really interesting the last few years. We had some solutions we were trying to push and we just didn't get them. And again, this year, and so I get disappointed. I really want to make a difference. It just small little things like that make a huge impact for our state on women's healthcare at least. Yeah.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (20:39):
Let's transition from healthcare to education. You've got Idle Falls High School right in the middle of your district and you serve with former school board of District 91, Senator Dave Lent. And the issues around updating school facilities has been such a hot issue this session. And obviously out Falls High School is one that's pretty outdated and can't seem to pass a bond. What's the short-term solution here as you look at updating school facilities and the work that the governor and Senator Land have been doing?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (21:07):
Well, I think the fastest thing we can do is just divert a lot of money over to the school facilities across the state. And we need to retire programs that are currently, they're being funded that where some of our legislators pet projects and sometimes we have to realize that there's other priorities that are more important, and those facilities in that backlog of maintenance is long overdue. And we need to just, I say adjust those funding and retire an old program in favor of something. And if it's needed in the future, we could bring something back. Once we've taken care of business, we've just way too long gone without taking care of those facilities. And if you travel and you see some of those facilities we have, you'll be amazed and you wouldn't want your child going in there and you're shocked that we haven't taken care of that and it's our duty, so it's time for us to step up.
(22:04):
And I was really pleased to see that we were able to have one bill, but we can always do more. And I think, so to answer your question about short-term solutions, there's other options that have been proposed maybe in the future. We have designs of buildings that we say, Hey, these are four or five approved buildings for this size for an elementary school and for a middle school and highs. And we just give them the plans and the legislature can be built to a certain amount of money. And I think that would be a great solution. We haven't got there yet, but that would be a great option. Then a school district could say, we need a new elementary. They get on the list for a certain amount of years, and it would just happen. It would be like, however it is five a year, six a year, 10 a year. I don't know what that number would look like yet or how much they would cost. But I do know you do save costs when you keep the same design and everybody doesn't individualize their design. You could still change the colors, you could change the angle. It's pointed at that kind of thing.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (23:03):
Yeah, I like that extender. Lent told us you'd be blown away. We would be blown away by how much a building costs.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (23:09):
Yeah,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (23:10):
Not cheap. It's not getting cheaper.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (23:11):
20 to 40 million on some of those. Yeah,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (23:14):
It's wild. So I imagine when you speak with your constituents, education and school facilities are probably near the top of many of their lists.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (23:21):
Yeah, it comes up a lot. They're concerned about the percentage that it takes to approve a bond. I hear that a lot. So there was a constitutional amendment proposed in the education committee this year. There were several different constitutional amendments, not very many of them. I don't think any of them moved forward. Most of us were like, it's really not a thing you take lightly to change the college. But that was one of 'em that came up to allow them to vote to lower that threshold. And I think the intent was to move that to a time when there are more people engaged in the process. So in November, and that makes sense to me. That way you have a real majority, and if it was 50 plus one, then you'd be okay. So that's an option that's out there as well. And I think a lot of our constituents have been asking for that option. It just didn't move forward past the committee. I think it was introduced by Representative Rod Furnace this year,
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (24:17):
And we know he's a troublemaker. Right.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (24:20):
No, I would say
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (24:20):
That we like Rod. Rod comes on a lot. Other issues that your constituents tell you about aside from education in school facilities and school bonds?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (24:28):
Well, we hear about the transportation infrastructure all the time. Potholes, I get calls. Most of my calls are related to mental health though, seriously, because people know and they look up my profile and they know hope this guy knows something about this. He'll do something or he'll make a phone call on my behalf. So I get a lot of phone calls specific to that, my specialty. So I'm proud of that, that they're willing to have. And I usually solve their problem rather quickly or connect them with the people that can. And it's really, it's nice to feel that they were looking for help and they got it. So that's one thing that I will do with all my constituents always is I give them my cell phone. I'm like, call me if you need something. We're happy to do that.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (25:12):
That's wild. And you don't get too many spammers calling
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (25:15):
You. No, have not had that. I've been really blessed. Well, let's not have any ERs caught me now all of a sudden.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (25:22):
So you're in a different seat than a lot of us in that you get to see the laws be made. You're right there. Do you feel like Idaho's heading in the right direction?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (25:35):
I always feel Idaho's heading in the right direction. If you look at us compared to the national, I meet with legislators from all over the country. People don't realize I travel a lot to do legislative stuff. Last year I went to Washington, DC three times to work on healthcare policy. I was in Colorado, and when I was in Colorado was 13 other state led slavers were there and interacting with us. And whenever we travel to each other states, we connect with each other. We talk. Idaho's doing really well. We're not in major debt like other states. You talk to them and we're like, you are 30 billion in debt. That's more than our entire budget. How could you guys operate? And we do really good work. We have some rifts in our party sometimes, but nothing that's too hard to work out. We're good at working things out. That's what I love about Idaho. We're good people. Most of them are always there for the right reasons. We just see things differently.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (26:31):
And there's sometimes a perception that in Boise, the Republicans and the Democrats vote completely opposite. And then sometimes the Republicans and other Republicans vote completely opposite. And we hope that some good comes. But you actually have been doing some research and cracking in on the bills and how they passed. I was surprised to learn that there was more bipartisanship bills passed this last session than what I think most people would realize.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (26:55):
Yeah, I've been trying to, I love statistics. I love that analysis. It tells the story. I looked at just the house bills so far haven't added the Senate bills in, but in just the house bills about 50% of all the bills we passed, which is close to a little over 200 of 'em that we voted on, and almost 50% were all members of both parties supported them. So that means either 70 members or there might've been a couple absent, but in the case, all the members supported that legislation equally. So that means it was bipartisan and we all supported.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (27:29):
And so what does it tell you about that issue or about that need?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (27:35):
Oh, that's a great question. It's either a really darn good bill or it's a pretty simple fix to something that people really don't care that much. But most of the time it is kind of a mix, a mix of a simple tweak to, or something we do every year. I ran the pharmacy, it's a bill we run every year to classify the scheduling of new pharmaceuticals. It's something we do every year. Most of the times it gets a few voters are voting against it. And this year I was shocked. I was like, all 70 of you supported that bill. That's great. It's not normal. But we emphasized that Idaho had the Idaho way of doing it, and we didn't just follow the federal way. Our people didn't just adopt what the feds had said. Idaho had their own council, looked at things their own way. Once in a while they'll reject a couple of the federal classifications. That's kind of a simple example. It's a simple bill, but I run that when I need to.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (28:33):
But the moral of the story is we would be concerned if every bill had unanimous support from both parties.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (28:39):
Yes, we
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (28:39):
Would. There would be challenges there. But it's nice to see that there is a number of bills that everyone can
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (28:44):
Agree on. And I was trying to remember when I looked at my analysis, the party line votes, there was roughly in just houseboat almost 35, 36. So it was about 15% of all the bills that were very clear party line Republicans voted one way. Democrats voted another way. And it was all Republicans. And the way I do my analysis, if there's less than five that move one way or another that I don't count it that as a split vote or a straight party vote, but it's very rare. But those ones, it's pretty clear how many, 35 of them were very clear party votes like that. And then the rest of them, when there's extras, that means the Republicans were split. So there's occasionally that that happens about, what was it, 35% of the time that that happens.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (29:31):
Yeah. Now, if you had the opportunity to sit down in front of the whole house and Senate and were able to say in this off session what they to do to become more effective when you're in session, what do you think is the missing component to ensure that you guys can run even smoother when January to March?
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (29:50):
You asked the magical question. I've been thinking about this for a long time. One of the greatest things we can do is come prepared to session with bills ready. And the second thing we can do is have our committees have special work groups where the committee works together on legislations to fix actual problems. And then we've come up with these solutions and worked on them rather than outside interests coming. There were several bills this year where people from outside Idaho were trying to push their agenda, and you could see right through that. And they come testify in committee, and they're not even Idahoans. They're not solutions for Idaho. So I think that's what's missing. There isn't enough committee collaboration, even if we're split in how we're made up. But if we did that, we would come to a consensus together and then that legislation would fly right through and it would solve really amazing problems. So I'd love to see more of that happening in committee.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (30:45):
So coming day one with a lot of preparation and pre-work done and collaboration with committee to ensure that when you're there, you're not starting from scratch. Correct. Yeah. I like that idea too,
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (30:55):
Because what happens is they come in and the first week, not a lot of things happen. It's slow. And I wish that we just had bills ready to roll right out of the gate, and you already had a bill number and that first week you're having hearings on those bills. And most of us had already heard about it. We've talked about it, so we're ready to go. And I think that would speed things up. And especially with the budgets. I mean, our constitutional mandate is get those budgets done. And they tried a new process this year and we saw how it went. You could say it was good or bad. I mean, it was a little bit divided on how we liked that or not.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (31:31):
Definitely. Definitely. Now you're busy, you've got everything going on, but you still decided you're a glutton for punishment and you're going to run again. You're up for reelection.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (31:40):
Yeah. I still have work to do. I've learned a lot of things. I still have some more work to do, and that's going to benefit Idahoans, especially in the mental health space and the justice space as we talked about earlier. And when I'm done feeling it should be a couple more years, maybe one term after that, and I am pretty sure I can achieve a lot of those things I set out to do, and then it'll be someone else's turn. So even with all the stress and all that, I'm willing to do the service that needs to be done for our constituents, and I'm happy to do
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (32:12):
That. Well, I think you bring a unique set of skills and an experience to the job that not every legislator does. So your voice is important. We know how busy you are. We know you've got to run off. But we really do appreciate you coming and meeting with us. Thanks
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (32:26):
For having me here today.
Brennan Summers, Main Street Idaho (32:27):
Yeah. Again, this is Representative Marco Erickson, district 33. Appreciate you being here.
Representative Marco Erickson, Idaho Falls (32:32):
Thank you.
