Scott restored to committee assignments

February 1, 2017

After having been stripped of her committee assignments January 12 for alleged inappropriate comments to a fellow legislator, Idaho District 1 representative Heather Scott, Blanchard, was restored to her seats on the House Commerce, Environment at State Affairs Committees today. After Tuesday's session concluded, House Speaker Scott Bedke gave reporters a written statement saying that Scott “has acknowledged that what she said and did, on numerous occasions, was wrong.” “She seems to have taken ownership and responsibility for her offensive comments," Bedke wrote. "She has made efforts to apologize to those who were personally harmed or offended by her statements and actions. It’s unfortunate that it took her this long to do so, but that is all I required her to do. I expect her future actions to confirm her sincerity. I hope she has learned something from this that will make her a better legislator.” Today, an unrepentant Scott released her own statement. "After a 20 day moratorium, Speaker Bedke decided to reinstate me back to my assigned committees and restore full representation of District 1 today," she wrote. "This decision has been a long time coming and is good news for my district and the people throughout Idaho who believe in a republic form of government. "Considering the fact that punitive actions to this extent have never been taken against a legislator in the State of Idaho, I believe this situation has highlighted the overreaching authority of the Speaker of the House, Representative Scott Bedke of District 27. "The unprofessional manner in which this entire situation was handled reveals that there is room for improvement in communication, mutual respect and leadership inside the Idaho House of Representatives. "I believe Mr. Bedke’s recent statement to the newspaper is a bit disingenuous considering that he refers to my statements 'and actions.' "To this day, he has still not completely told me why I was removed from my committees and he allowed the situation to escalate for unknown reasons. My many apologies never seemed to be good enough to please Speaker Bedke, so I opted for a public apology weeks ago. When that wasn’t enough, I was assured that one last apology to a small group two days ago would be the final requirement. "I believe this situation may have been used as a political distraction from a bigger political issues, but time will tell. That said, I will continue to work hard to represent the people of District 1. I will remain positive and will continue to be a strong defender of the First Amendment - no voice or opinion should be silenced."