Earlier this year, Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, told IdahoReporter.com he was planning on bringing a bill to the Idaho Statehouse to stop what he called invasive pat-downs by federal officials at airport security checkpoints.

Barbieri has since reversed course, saying he has decided not to bring the bill this year.

His original plan was to use state law to prevent the searches. His proposed legislation wouldn’t have directly barred pat-downs by Transportation Safety Administration workers at airports, but it would have added a section to state code classifying unwanted pat-down searches as battery.

But Barbieri said that during his research on the issue, he found difficulties might arise in enforcing the legislation. In talks with law enforcement officials, Barbieri said police officers believed air passengers consented to the pat-down searches by virtue of the desire to travel by plane.

With that notion in mind, Barbieri and his seat mate, Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, dropped the bid, at least for now. Barbieri says, if he’s re-elected in the fall, he will continue to research the issue and see if he can find a workable solution. Otherwise, he said, the idea is dead for now. “I don’t want people to think I’m tilting at windmills,” he explained.