BOISE — Idaho Senate Republicans announced over the weekend that they’ve agreed with House GOP leaders to form a working group to study allegations from House Republicans that Idaho libraries are making explicit materials available to minors.

Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder, R-Boise, said Monday, “Basically, they wanted to do a resolution, we didn’t want to do one. But we’re willing to do the working group and investigate the problem and see the scope of the problem and what the remedies might be, if need be.”

Winder said the joint working group would include four senators and four representatives, plus representatives of the Idaho Commission for Libraries and Idaho Library Association who would serve as ex-officio members.

The House on Friday passed a resolution setting up the “House Working Group for Protecting Idaho Children from Material Harmful to Minors in Libraries,” calling for it to include both House members and representatives from the commission and the association.

The issue derailed the planned end of the legislative session on Friday, as the House twice defeated the proposed budget for the Idaho Commission for Libraries in an effort to send a message about the issue to Idaho librarians.

The budget that finally passed late Friday night for the library commission cuts its overall funding by 10.5 percent, removing $307,000 in state general funds for digital and e-book collections the commission was making available to Idaho K-12 schools, and $3.5 million in federal funds that were to help set up internet links for telehealth in rural Idaho communities through libraries.

The Commission for Libraries doesn’t actually run local libraries; it provides services to libraries statewide.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable for us to purge libraries of all adult material,” House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said Monday. “I haven’t been convinced that there’s a crisis. But if it gets people settled down to the point where they’re willing to fund libraries in the future, I guess it’s something we have to do.”

Some House Republicans were particularly angry about a March 2 email from the Idaho Library Association to its members opposing HB 666, legislation that passed the House but never got a hearing in the Senate. That bill sought to criminalize librarians, including imposing fines and jail time, if minors check out harmful materials. Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, distributed copies of the email to the House on Thursday and said she believed it made the Commission for Libraries “unfundable.” She later supported the revised budget bill after passage of the resolution and imposition of the additional funding cuts.

“There were some that thought 666 was the right bill, and we just didn’t feel that way,” Winder said Monday. “We thought we needed to know the scope of the problem and try and figure out what the real remedy might be before actually passing any legislation.”

As the House debated the matter on Friday, former state senator and former Boise City Council President Maryanne Jordan tweeted, “15 years on the Boise City Council and 6 years in the #idleg (Idaho Legislature). Never one complaint about library content. Just stop.”

During the House debate on HB 666, materials that House members object to were passed around the House floor in a “super-secret folder;” they mostly were books from the adult section of libraries, along with a couple of teen memoirs and coming-of-age novels with LGBTQ themes. There also was a youth sex education book that is made available to children over age 10.

House Republicans, including Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, have decried what they call “smut” in Idaho libraries, and Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, claimed during House debate Friday that libraries “are pushing pornography on our children.”

Winder said, “No one wants to have kids exposed to age-inappropriate materials, and certainly not pornography.”

Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, said libraries are “integral” to Idaho. “I think it is extraordinarily unfortunate that we have put them in the crosshairs,” she said, “when they do such great work for our communities.”

“I think it’s censorship,” Stennett said.

The House and Senate both recessed until Thursday at 11 a.m. shortly before midnight on Friday, rather than adjourn their session for the year.

A news release from the Senate Republican Caucus said, “HB 666 rightly sought to protect children from obscene materials and brought to light the bigger issue of the availability of unsuitable media to children, not only on bookshelves but readily available on smartphones and tablets.” It said Senate Republicans believe in “emphasizing the importance of parents as their childrens’ first protectors against harmful materials on the internet, online media outlets, and cyber predators.”

Winder said depending on what the joint working group finds, “Maybe the remedies are as simple as the school boards and libraries doing their jobs within the legal bounds of the Constitution.”