On Monday it was expected that House Bill 404, more commonly known during this session as the anti-Occupy Boise bill, would finally be heard on the Senate floor. However, that was not exactly the case.
The Senate convened late in the afternoon to consider the bill, but it was sent back to the amending order from where it was pulled for consideration. Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, proposed an amendment that would exclude colleges and universities from the bill. Schmidt’s amendment was rejected by the Senate in a voice vote, thus placing the original bill on the Senate reading calendar. The senator said that should the bill pass without the proposed amendment, there could be "unintended consequences" because the drafters of the bill didn't think about colleges and universities when it was drafted.
The bill garnered a lot of attention early in the session when it was introduced and passed through the House committee and floor (vote was 54-16 in favor) with relative ease. The bill was introduced nearly three weeks ago in the House.
