Category: US State of Idaho

Source: US State of Idaho

Simpson Supports REINS Act to Limit Executive Overreach
Washington, D.C. – Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today voted in favor of H.R. 277, the Regulations from the Executives in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2023.  This legislation would reassert Congress’ legislative authority and prevent executive overreach in the federal rulemaking process by requiring congressional approval for new “major rules” proposed by federal agencies before they go into effect.
“Americans have grown weary of the Biden Administration’s constant overreach.  From astonishing student debt bailouts, unprecedented ATF restrictions, and EPA overreach harming Idaho’s farmers, ranchers, and landowners, the need to rein in executive overreach is beyond clear,” said Simpson.
Under H.R. 277, a “major rule” is defined as rule that has resulted in or is likely to result in (1) an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; (2) a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, government agencies, or geographic regions; or (3) significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or the ability of U.S.-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises.  The bill would also preserve Congress’ authority to disapprove of a “nonmajor rule” through a joint resolution.
“In addition to causing regulatory uncertainty, executive overreach also presents financial burdens for American taxpayers—to the tune of $200 billion in new regulatory costs during President Biden’s first year in office.  This trajectory simply cannot continue, which is why I proudly supported H.R. 277 to bring transparency and accountability back to the federal regulatory process,” said Simpson.
H.R. 277 passed in the House of Representatives on June 14, 2023, by a vote of 221-210.
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Source: US State of Idaho

Simpson Votes to Nix Biden Administration’s ATF Pistol Brace Rule
Washington, D.C. – Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today voted in favor of H.J. Res. 44, a resolution to provide Congressional disapproval of President Biden’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) recent rule that would severely and wrongfully limit millions of law-abiding citizens’ use of stabilizing pistol braces.  Congressman Simpson also cosponsored this legislation.
Pistol braces were invented to help disabled veterans safely use firearms and have long been recognized as a legitimate right and exemption from certain taxes and regulations under the National Firearms Act.  Under the ATF’s new rule, gun owners and dealers possessing pistol braces must either destroy the braces, turn them in to the ATF, or register them as short-barreled rifles subject to fees, regulations, and additional background checks.  Failure to comply with the new rule could result in criminal fines and federal prison time for up to 10 years.
“ATF rulemaking under the Biden Administration has increasingly and inappropriately encroached upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Simpson.  “The ATF’s recent rule shatters precedent that even the Obama Administration’s ATF recognized—that pistol braces serve a legitimate purpose and should not be subject to heavy-handed regulation.  I will continue to stand up for law-abiding citizens’ and veterans’ Second Amendment rights and refuse to let the Biden Administration regulate the firearms industry out of existence.”
H.J. Res. 44 would both nullify ATF Rule 2021R-08 and prevent the ATF from issuing a substantially similar rule if passed by both chambers of Congress. 
H.J. Res. 44 passed in the House of Representatives on June 13, 2023, by a vote of 219-210 and awaits further action in the U.S. Senate.
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Source: US State of Idaho

Home Newsroom 2nd Amendment Constitutional Rights at Stake, Attorney General Raúl Labrador Leads 23 Other U.S. States in Opposing California’s “Unsafe Handgun Act”

Boise, ID – Attorney General Raúl Labrador was joined by Attorneys General from 23 other states in challenging California’s “Unsafe Handgun Act.” The amicus brief supports the California Rifle & Pistol Association’s challenge to the California law aimed at limiting the sale and use of guns in California and nationwide.
Attorney General Labrador said, “California has used the pretext of ‘public safety’ to encroach upon the Second Amendment rights of not only its residents but also all citizens of the United States. Despite California’s relentless attempts to reinterpret the 2nd Amendment through its regulatory framework, the right to bear arms predates and transcends the political institutions seeking to undermine it. The State of Idaho is committed to safeguarding the constitutional rights of all Americans.”
The State of California aims to use the “Unsafe Handgun Act” to chill firearm commerce. California law requires new semiautomatic handguns to have three components: A chamber load indicator, a magazine disconnect mechanism, and microstamping capability so law enforcement can link spent shell casings to the guns from which they were fired. Currently, no new gun on the market meets all three of these requirements. In essence, California has created hurdles to stop the purchase of new firearms.
“California has attempted to work around the Constitution by essentially creating Second Amendment free zones. In most parts of the country, Americans can purchase commonly used weapons, but in California they cannot purchase new weapons because no gun meets these requirements,” Labrador said.
The brief can be accessed here. Other states joining the brief include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Source: US State of Idaho

Simpson Backs Tax Relief Bill for Auto Dealers | U.S. Congressman Mike Simpson – 2nd District of Idaho

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Source: US State of Idaho

Home Newsroom Attorney General Labrador Announces $102.5 Million Settlement with Suboxone Maker for Alleged Illegal Monopoly Tactics

Boise, ID – Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador announced that 42 states, led by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, have negotiated a nationwide $102.5 million settlement with the maker of Suboxone, Indivior Inc. Idaho will receive about $920,000 from the settlement.
“Indivior has used our nation’s drug problem to enrich itself. The company, in an attempt to shield its opioid addiction treatment Suboxone from generic competition, forced consumers to pay inflated prices for the treatment. Not only is this practice illegal, but it is morally reprehensible,” Attorney General Labrador said.
In 2016 the States filed a complaint against Indivior Inc. alleging that they used illegal means to switch the Suboxone market from tablets to film while attempting to destroy the market for tablets, in order to preserve its drug monopoly. Trial had been set for September 2023.
The agreement, which will be submitted to the court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for approval, requires Indivior to pay the states $102.5 million. Indivior is also required to comply with negotiated injunctive terms that include disclosures to the States of all citizen petitions to the FDA, introduction of new products, or if there is a change in corporate control, which will help the States ensure that Indivior refrains from engaging in the same kind of conduct alleged in the complaint.
Wisconsin’s Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, Gwendolyn Lindsay Cooley, is the lead attorney for the 42 States, including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Source: US State of Idaho

Idaho Industries Pay the Price of Our Broken Immigration System
By Congressman Mike Simpson
Washington, D.C. – “Congress has an opportunity to make meaningful and needed change in securing our borders while at the same time delivering the workforce Idaho’s farmers desperately need.  These changes need to go hand in hand.  Failing to secure our borders leaves American families abandoned to the threats of drug trafficking and terrorism that have increased since President Biden took office.  Failing to undertake comprehensive immigration reform leaves farmers without a secure and legal workforce and distracts border patrol agents from tackling the real threats to our security.  Idaho families, farmers, and communities face the consequences of failing to address these problems every day, and we must find the political courage to make real, lasting change on border security and immigration reform.
“Securing our borders must be the first thing we tackle.  We must, for example, stop the flow of fentanyl and other dangerous substances into our country.  The Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has seized over 14,000 pounds of fentanyl coming across the southwest border—enough to kill 3.1 billion people—and yet this deadly drug continues to pour into our country.  Idahoans are living out the terrible consequences of our failure to secure the border.  I was heartbroken to learn recently about a family in Lewiston who lost their son after he purchased what he thought was OxyContin from an unknown source.  The pill turned out to contain enough fentanyl to kill six people.  I wish this story was an outlier, but similar stories of young people dying from accidental fentanyl overdose have become tragically common.  In Idaho, the number of overdose deaths involving fentanyl has doubled in the past year.
“We can’t sit by while young people die and communities are torn apart with grief.  That’s why I recently supported H.R. 2, Secure the Border Act, which strengthens our borders and closes existing loopholes in President Biden’s ineffective immigration policies.  Among other things, H.R. 2 would increase the number of Border Patrol agents and deploy stronger border security technology.  The failure of President Biden and Democrats to act on these issues has left Americans less secure.
“Failure to act on comprehensive immigration reform, however, continues to leave Idaho’s agriculture, construction, hospitality, medical and countless other industries less secure.  The consequences of our broken immigration system are felt every day by Idaho employers who cannot find a legal workforce willing to do the jobs that keep their businesses and our economy running. 
“Nowhere is this truer than in agriculture.  We may not like to admit it, but most Americans are simply unwilling to harvest crops by hand or milk cows every day.  As a result, Idaho farmers have had to rely on an immigrant workforce for decades.  But because our immigration system doesn’t work, they face a growing workforce crisis that is crippling our state’s valuable agriculture industry.  The current H-2A guestworker program is costly and cumbersome, and it is not even available to whole swaths of the agriculture sector, like the dairy industry. 
“In fact, Idaho’s dairy industry provides us with a good example of how crucial immigration reform is for our state’s economy.  Ninety percent of Idaho’s dairy workers are foreign-born.  These are good paying jobs—higher than anything you would find on the main street of your local community—but domestic workers simply won’t take them.  Without access to a visa program that connects them with a legal workforce, Idaho dairymen are stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Idaho’s dairy producers have countless stories about good, loyal workers they have employed for years who have been valuable in helping them build their businesses, only to find out that they are here without legal status when their employee is deported after a traffic stop or some other interaction with law enforcement.  No one wins in this situation—the dairy loses a valuable employee, and Idaho loses a valued member of the community who pays taxes, goes to church on Sunday, spends their earnings locally, and does their best to be a good member of society.  No one benefits from our failure to fix our broken immigration system.
“This is why I worked to ensure that H.R. 2 includes language protecting American farmers by giving three years before e-verify requirements are imposed on our agriculture communities.  This gives us time to do the critical work of providing a stable, secure, and legal agriculture workforce, which I have spearheaded for the past several years.  In this work, I have collaborated with Idaho producers and others to create the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA), which provides real solutions to the workforce crisis facing agriculture.  Not only will the FWMA provide a stable workforce for our farmers and bring workers who have been contributing to our economy for years out of the shadows to get right with the law, but it will help stem the flow of illegal immigration so that border patrol can focus on stopping terrorists and drug traffickers from bringing their deadly wares across our borders.  What is more, I believe it can be a model for the long overdue larger immigration reforms for which the American people have been demanding for decades.
“Securing our borders and reforming our immigration system are difficult and complex and won’t be resolved without courage in Congress and a commitment among all parties to find a solution.  But Idahoans will continue to face the consequences of our broken immigration system until we are willing to do the hard work needed to secure our borders and provide a comprehensive, permanent, and legal solution to fix it.”
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Source: US State of Idaho

Home Newsroom Attorney General Labrador Sues Biden Administration Over Unlawful Open-Borders Policies

‘Circumvention of Lawful Pathways’ rule fails to mitigate out-of-control illegal immigration
Boise, ID – As part of an 18-state coalition, Attorney General Raúl Labrador is suing the Biden administration over its proposed new “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule.
“The Biden administration’s proposed plan to address the surge of illegal border crossings is inadequate. The proposal carves out exceptions restricting DHS from effectively combatting unlawful entry into the United States. If the Biden administration were serious about securing our borders, they would re-introduce the Migrant Protection Protocol,” Attorney General Labrador said.
The federal government has characterized the new rule as a means for continuing to regulate immigration since the expiration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Title 42 public health order. That policy gave authorities greater ability to bar illegal immigrants from crossing the border during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In reality, however, the new rule just worsens the problem by redefining previously illegal border crossings as “lawful pathways.”
Besides Idaho, the Indiana-led lawsuit is also joined by Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
The lawsuit is linked here.
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Source: US State of Idaho

Simpson Supports Fiscal Responsibility Act
Washington, D.C. – Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today voted in favor of H.R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act.  This legislation builds on House Republicans’ efforts in the Limit, Save, Grow Act by raising the debt ceiling through January 1, 2025, and including nondefense spending cuts, permitting reforms for domestic energy production, and reasonable work requirements for federal welfare program recipients.
“I am proud of Speaker McCarthy and our Republican leadership team that held out strong in negotiations with President Biden not only to stop an immediate crisis, but also to include consequential reforms that address underlying spending issues and put our nation on a sustainable long-term path to financial stability,” said Simpson.  “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this bill will reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over ten years, while fully funding critical veterans’ programs, national defense priorities, and preserving Social Security and Medicare.”
Additional highlights that Republicans successfully negotiated to include in this legislation:
Immediate cuts to IRS funding for more agents
Restarting student loan repayments
Rescinding $28 billion of unspent COVID relief funds
Incentivizing Congress to pass appropriations legislation by requiring cuts in the event of a Continuing Resolution. 
The bill increases defense spending to match the Pentagon’s overall defense request; rejects all $5 trillion of President Biden’s proposed new tax increases, new government mandates, and new federal programs; and requires the Executive Branch to offset any potential future spending increases. 
“Raising the debt limit does not create new spending—rather, it allows the federal government to pay back loans that were taken out in the past and ensures that the government meets its obligations to bondholders, taxpayers, Social Security recipients, and the veterans and service men and women who have served our country faithfully,” said Simpson.  “Democrats’ unchecked spending got us to the circumstance we’re in today, and this bill sets a strategic and responsible path forward to grow the economy and save trillions in taxpayer dollars, which is why I was proud to vote in favor of this legislation.”
H.R. 3746 passed in the House of Representatives on May 31, 2023, by a vote of 314-117and awaits further action in the U.S. Senate.
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Source: US State of Idaho

Home Newsroom Attorney General Labrador Joins 23 State Coalition Against Biden Administration’s Unlawful Immigration Policy

Boise, ID – Attorney General Raúl Labrador joined an amicus brief led by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in the case of Florida v. Mayorkas, supporting the State of Florida’s lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s unlawful immigration policy, creating a dangerous crisis at our southern border. Rather than detaining illegal immigrants as the law requires, the Biden Administration has released those encountered at the border into the United States. This policy flagrantly violates federal immigration law and encourages immigrants to try and cross the border illegally, hoping to be released into the interior.
Since taking office, President Biden has seen an illegal immigration explosion of more than 5.5 million, larger than the population of 28 states. The Administration has released more than a million immigrants it encountered at the border into the interior. The Administration’s policy of “catch and release” rather than detaining them has not only encouraged more illegal immigration, but also dangerous criminal activity like fentanyl smuggling and human trafficking, both of which have exacted a terrible toll on this country.
“The Biden Administration flagrantly ignores federal immigration law. Despite the president’s constitutional duty to defend our homeland, the executive branch has abandoned its responsibility to protect our borders. Moreover, laws enacted by the United States Congress must be enforced by the executive. The State of Idaho strongly supports Florida’s quest to compel the Biden Administration to act,” Attorney General Labrador said.
Attorney General Miyares’ brief was joined by the following states: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.