The Shadow Legislature

Idaho’s Quiet March Toward Full-Time Government

Power is shifting in Idaho—not through elections or new laws, but through quiet maneuvers most voters never see. It’s happening in the shadows, behind closed doors, and without your vote. Leadership in the Legislature is slowly building the framework of a government that runs year-round, using your tax dollars, without ever telling you it’s happening.

Our state was never meant to be governed by a permanent political class. Idaho’s citizen legislature was designed to serve briefly and return home, not to operate continuously in the background while ordinary people are left in the dark. But a growing number of unofficial task forces, working groups, and off-session initiatives are now steering the direction of policy without legal authority or public accountability. They are quietly redrawing the lines of government, using public funds and leadership power without ever asking permission.

It’s a pattern I’ve come to recognize. And it has a name.

Foundational Creep
noun
The slow and often unnoticed expansion of government beyond its original constitutional or philosophical limits. It occurs incrementally through the accumulation of precedents, the normalization of exceptions, and the gradual growth of bureaucratic practices. Over time, the scope and role of government shift in practice without a formal vote, legal amendment, or public consent.

Like solid rock under constant pressure, even the firmest foundations can deform. Eventually the strain becomes too great, and fractures begin to form. Left unchallenged, Foundational Creep leads not just to distortion, but to the eventual collapse of limited government.

You don’t have to look far to see it happening right here in Idaho.

Over the past year, a growing number of legislative groups have been created with official-sounding names: the AI Working Group, the Department of Government Efficiency Task Force, the Child Protection Task Force, and others. These are not informal brainstorming sessions. They assign members, hold livestreamed meetings, issue formal recommendations, and rely on taxpayer-funded staff and resources to operate. Yet none of them have been authorized by law or approved through a vote of the full Legislature. They are not interim committees. They are leadership initiatives, carried out in the name of government but without the consent of the governed.

Their titles are carefully crafted to sound transparent, neutral, and urgent. That is by design. It is easier to justify extra-legal governance when it comes packaged as a public service. But names do not legitimize power. Process does. And when proper process is ignored or bypassed, no amount of branding makes it legitimate. It is still a distortion of representative government. It is still Foundational Creep.

In researching how this practice might be justified, I found only one statute that appears to be used as cover: Idaho Statute §67-429. This statute governs the Legislative Council, a group made up of House and Senate leadership from both parties, and tasks it with overseeing legislative operations between sessions. The relevant clause authorizes the council to “conduct or cause to be conducted studies and investigations” on matters affecting the state.

But that phrase was never meant to justify the creation of pseudo-committees with official names, appointed members, paid staff, and the power to steer policy. The Legislative Council is an administrative body, not a substitute for the Legislature. It was designed to manage logistics and continuity, not to operate as a stand-in government. Yet today, it is being used precisely that way, without a vote, without a statute, and without the consent of the citizens who are footing the bill.

Because yes, you are paying for all of it.

These groups are not run off the clock or funded by private donations. They operate with taxpayer-paid staff, public facilities, government time, and official communications platforms. Whether or not you agree with the issues they’re tackling, every Idahoan should be asking the same questions: Who approved this? Where is the legal authority? And why are we paying for it?

Some people might argue that these groups are addressing important concerns. And maybe they are. But even important work must follow a legitimate process. Idaho already has mechanisms in place to raise priorities and set direction. The Idaho Republican Party, for example, passes resolutions each year during its convention, where elected grassroots delegates from every corner of the state vote on issues that matter most to the people they represent. That’s how citizen-driven direction is supposed to rise: from the bottom up, from the people, not from a memo issued by leadership.

These unofficial task forces do not come from public input. They do not reflect the party platform. They do not go through legislative committees. They are not authorized by law. Instead, they originate from behind-the-scenes conversations, often among those with direct access to leadership, policy groups, or federal influence. And yet, they are being used to shape how agencies behave, what policies move forward, and how public resources are spent.

That is not how a citizen legislature works. If the work of shaping policy is now being done through unofficial channels, without law, without input, and without restraint, then what exactly is the Legislature for?

If this practice continues unchecked, it will become the new normal. Future legislative leaders won’t have to create the system; they will simply inherit it. Policy will be shaped behind closed doors, all year long, with no legal foundation or public accountability. Foundational Creep doesn’t just blur the rules. It replaces the structure of government itself, all while pretending nothing has changed.

Government rarely collapses overnight. Like tectonic plates shifting beneath the earth’s crust, the pressure builds slowly and silently. Fissures form, strain accumulates, and most people remain unaware. Then the pressure reaches a breaking point. An explosion follows. Chaos. Collapse. That is the real danger of Foundational Creep. It does not ask for permission. It simply shifts the boundaries a little more each time. And if we do not draw the line now, the idea of a limited, part-time, citizen-led legislature will slip from something we have to something we remember.

If you value the Idaho you were promised, now is the time to act. Ask your legislators whether they support these unofficial groups. Ask how much public money is being used. Ask why proper legal procedures were skipped. Because if we ignore Foundational Creep now, we will not just see government bend. We will watch it break.