Attorney with legislative background shares thoughts on 2025 session

For six years, from 2012 to 2018, Luke Malek served as a Republican representative in the Idaho State Legislature. The experience gave him valuable insight into the machinery of state government and how bills are produced.

In 2015, he founded the law firm of Smith + Malek with his friend Peter Smith. Practicing in the fields of business, health care and municipal law, Malek has background knowledge of what pieces of legislation are going to benefit or hurt his clients.

Recently, he took a few moments out of his day to discuss the 2025 legislative session, what bills are good and bad for business, and how process works.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Idaho Business Review: How does your time serving as a representative for Idaho inform your perspective on the legislative process?

Luke Malek: Obviously, I got to know the legislative process really well, having been in the legislature. So I understand that not everything is always as it appears. A lot of times, people will say this is a terrible piece of legislation … sometimes it’s true, and other times, there’s a lot more to the story than that.

IBR: What was the process like of drafting bills?

LM: A lot of times, it will be an industry or representative that will go to the legislative services with an idea. And then, that idea gets put out into the public, whether that’s because it gets a hearing and becomes a bill, or because somebody says, “OK, I’ve got this draft,” and tries to bring people together. Then it starts to get momentum around how that’s going to impact different parties that might have an interest in whatever that law is changing. If done well, in my opinion, most people [stakeholders] will have at least an opportunity to have a conversation about how a piece of legislation is going to impact them even before it gets to committee.

IBR: What bills were passed this session that were the most beneficial for businesses in Idaho?

LM: I think the fact that that we got funding for child care, I think that’s huge because that impacts so many different businesses in terms of getting people an ability to get child care and for their employees specifically. It’s like, how are we going to solve this crisis? I was talking to a stakeholder today, who said people will get on a waiting list as soon as they find out they’re pregnant, and they’ll get on nine or 10 waiting lists, and sometimes they don’t ever make it. The demand is so high right now, and there are so few resources out there, so I think that’ll be a good one there. I think the movement in health care, the fact that Medicaid expansion was not repealed is a huge deal for businesses, because obviously that expansion population is targeted at the working poor. We’re talking about people’s employees that still have access to health care. Those are the two big ones in my mind.

IBR: Which bills would you consider the most detrimental to businesses?

LM: I think we have resources leaving the state. I think we have kids leaving the state because there’s a war on education. And I think we see young people not bringing their careers here because of a lot of the social stuff that may be having an impact on their ability to get a get a job here and feel safe with their families. The fact that we have so many OB-GYNs leaving the state, for example, that’s a real tough problem to solve because if you want to be pregnant as a family in the state of Idaho, that becomes a really difficult thing. From an employer perspective, looking and saying, “How are we keeping people here, but there’s no place for them to go get prenatal care.” That becomes really tough.

There was a lot of talk about how we’re ranked 50th in the nation for the number of physicians per capita. And then we have these policies that are making physicians say, “I’m not going to be prosecuted 10 years down the line for [a decision] that I made in my best medical discretion.” Why would I risk my family, my education, my reputation for this law?

IBR: How have you seen the face of the Legislature change over the past few years?

LM: Being back in the state house this year, it was interesting because a lot of the faces change but a lot of the conversations end up being the same. From my perspective, it really is a cool process. It’s more about the people of Idaho than it is about whoever’s serving in those seats in the halls. They have all these pictures of the past senators and representatives that have served, which is cool, but it’s also like nobody remembers who they are. To just see it is a process that continues no matter who’s over there is pretty cool.

A lot of people say it’s more conservative. On the other hand, there is some really intriguing stuff that helps businesses. That happened over there this year. The fact that there was a mandate to repeal Medicaid, it was more of a reform. And then child care that I was talking about. Those are proof that there are still good conversations happening over there and people are still being heard on the business side.

IBR: You touched on this in another answer, but in your opinion, is the state government more or less friendly to business these days?

LM: It really is issue dependent, and it’s always been that way. That’s where I say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Because when I was there, we were considered a pretty business-friendly legislature, but still, some really unfriendly things to business happened. And now, it’s the same thing. There’s some stuff that really, I think, helped save business a lot of headaches this year, and then some stuff that was just terrible.

IBR: How does your insight into the Legislature aid you with your client relationships?

LM: I think have being able to have conversations about what’s happening as they’re happening is really valuable to businesses, right? A lot of the anxiety is not knowing what’s happening, or not knowing how things are actually playing out. A lot of it is translating what’s happening. When a bill comes out to just fully repeal Medicaid and it’s like, “Well, we’ve heard that there might be some other bills, so don’t get too wrapped around the axle on House Bill 58.” That just said, “OK, we’re repealing Medicaid expansion.” But I was in the capitol and my colleagues and other lobbyists in the capitol saying, “OK, well, we hear there’s going to be a series of other bills with other options that may drop, and it’s got to get it through the senate and the governor.” So, it’s like, yes, bad bill and there are other things that could happen here. Just having that open communication, I think, is what aids my businesses the most. Again, the No. 1 enemy in my mind to business is uncertainty. As a business owner, as employers, as employees, it’s uncertainty that causes businesses to falter, and so making sure that we can be a part of providing certainty, and when things seem really uncertain, this kind of that insight becomes a good, helpful aid to our business clients.

We’re such a diverse state in terms of geography. If you live in Idaho Falls or Rexburg or Bonner Ferry, it’s going to be so hard to get that [legislative] information unless you’re talking to somebody that’s down there.

IBR: Shouldn’t there be a certain amount of research that goes into drafting a bill before it’s introduced?

LM: I would consider a good piece of legislation one that has taken all those perspectives, and it might not make everybody happy, but sometimes things need to change. When somebody goes in and just says, “I’m going to change this because I want to change,” and hasn’t talked to the stakeholders, there’s going to be impact. You haven’t thought through or researched the unintended consequences, and those are the bills that end up being really dangerous.