UPDATE: This story was updated at 11:30 a.m. Dec. 19, 2025, to include comments from Idaho House Speaker Mike Moyle, Joint Finance-Appropriations co-chairman Scott Grow, and Idaho Gov. Brad Little.

BOISE, ID – Rep. Wendy Horman, an experienced and powerful state legislator who has served as one of the architects of the state budget, announced Friday that she will resign from the Idaho Legislature to accept a position with the federal government in Washington, D.C.

Horman, an Idaho Falls Republican serving her seventh term in the Idaho Legislature, plans to make her resignation effective Jan. 5 – one week before the 2026 legislative session begins on Jan. 12.

Horman’s resignation means Republican leaders in the Idaho House of Representatives will appoint a new budget co-chair just as the state is navigating projected budget shortfalls for 2026 and 2027 and bracing for additional new budget cuts to avoid a projected budget deficit.

Idaho budget writers prepare to enter new era of trimming state budgets

“I fully expect the new House appropriations chairman to carry on the process changes that Sen. (Scott) Grow (R-Eagle) and I have made in the last three years,” Horman said in a phone interview. “We have heard from third parties and from members of the public that they appreciate the distinction between maintenance and growth spending, especially at times like this where we have volatility.”

In an interview, Horman said she will leave the Idaho Legislature to become director of the Office of Child Care at the Administration for Children and Families. The administration is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Assistant Secretary for Family Support Alex Adams, who is a former budget administrator and Idaho Department of Health and Welfare director.

“I am really excited about the opportunity,” Horman said. “It is a chance to continue the important work I feel like I’ve done for children in the state of Idaho and just continue that work at the national level, and bring a focus on children and families into child care – not bureaucracy and government.”

Horman said she expects to begin her new job near the end of January.

First elected to the Legislature in November 2012, Horman has served as co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee since just before the 2023 legislative session began.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC for short, is perhaps the most powerful committee in the entire Idaho Legislature and is responsible for setting all of the budgets for every state agency and department every year.

Prior to being elected to the Idaho Legislature in 2012, Horman served as a local school board member in the Idaho Falls area for the Bonneville Joint School District.

“Serving in the Idaho Legislature has been the privilege of a lifetime,” Horman wrote in a written statement Friday. “As I transition to this new role in the Trump administration, I will carry with me the values and lessons learned from serving the people of Idaho.”

Idaho officials react to budget co-chair’s departure

House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, said Horman was an asset to Idaho who fundamentally changed how the state does budgeting.

“Wendy did an amazing job; she was an amazing legislator,” House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star said Friday morning. “It’s been interesting seeing the Trump administration has been picking a lot people out of Idaho. (It’s a) testament to Wendy; she is a good legislator and a good overall person. She’s a big supporter of education and a big force in readjusting our budget.”

“She fundamentally changed the way we do budgeting,” Moyle added. “She’s one of the hardest working legislators there – first to get there in the morning and last leave. I will truly miss her. She’s a dear friend. I didn’t want her to leave; she’s just a good asset for the state of Idaho.”

Gov. Brad Little released a statement Friday congratulating Horman.

“I extend my warm congratulations to Rep. Wendy Horman on her appointment in the Trump administration,” Little wrote. “Her many years of public service, along with her steadfast commitment to ensuring every child has access to high-quality care and education, will serve her well in this new role. I join many in expressing my deep gratitude for her years of service to the people of District 32. Public office demands a profound commitment to something greater than oneself, and Rep. Horman exemplified that dedication through her thoughtful leadership and service in the Legislature.”

In an interview Friday, Grow, who served as JFAC co-chair with Horman, congratulated and thanked Horman.

“I am happy for Wendy; she has been a wonderful co-chair,” Grow said. “It has been an honor to serve with her. She is very bright and intuitive and articulate and has a great institutional memory, which is extremely helpful in JFAC, because JFAC is full of millions and billions of dollars of details.”

Grow said that when they became co-chairs, he and Horman made a commitment to act in unison as much as possible.  They were free to vote however they wanted on bills, but they strived to meet jointly whenever they met with a department head or lobbyist, Grow said.

“And the reason for that is that we wanted to make sure we both heard the same story from the same individual, and not something different from separate meetings,” Grow said.

Idaho House’s top budget writer leaving as state budget projects a deficit

Horman leaves the Legislature at a time when the state budget her committee set is projected to post a budget deficit in the current fiscal year 2026 and future years.

Budget documents project the state will end the current fiscal year 2026 with a budget deficit of $40 million, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

However the deficit is projected to increase by 10 times or more in the next year, according to state budget documents and officials.

The Idaho Legislative Services Office presented JFAC with a budget projection last month that showed the state budget is projected to end fiscal year 2027 with an estimated deficit of $555.2 million, the Sun previously reported. However, the state may actually need to come up with $600 million to $1 billion for fiscal year 2027. That’s if the Legislature chooses to conform with the tax changes from the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed into law this summer and also wants to leave a positive ending cash balance, Idaho Division of Financial Management Administrator Lori Wolff told the Sun last month.

Idaho’s projected budget deficit estimated at $40 million heading into 2026 legislative session

The Idaho Constitution requires the state to pass a balanced state budget every year and prohibits the state from running a budget deficit where expenses exceed revenues.

Horman and Gov. Brad Little’s staff have vowed that state officials will intervene and prevent the state budget from ending the fiscal year in a deficit.

“We will set a balanced budget,” Horman told the Sun in an interview last month. “The constitution requires it. I am personally committed to it. And I anticipate we will leave as large of a cash balance as we can to carry over into next year to guard against unforeseen circumstances.”

News of a projected budget deficit is a big change for Idaho. Following an influx of COVID-era federal stimulus money, Idaho ended fiscal year 2022 with a record budget surplus estimated at $2 billion, the Sun reported.

Idaho is experiencing revenue shortfalls and state budget holdbacks after passing major tax cuts over the past five years that reduced the amount of revenue available for the state budget. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy released a report in November showing that income tax cuts passed by the Idaho Legislature since 2021 have reduced state revenue by a cumulative total of $4 billion.

On Friday, Horman said education was her top priority while serving in the Idaho Legislature.

“I first ran for office because I want every child to have the opportunity for an excellent education, no matter where they are learning,” Horman wrote in an email to the Idaho Capital Sun. “During my 11 years on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, funding for public schools has more than doubled. I have successfully championed massive investments in teacher compensation, health insurance, staff salaries, literacy, and technology funding.”

Horman said she is proud of the changes she helped bring to JFAC.

“Finally, I am proud of the work Sen. Grow and I accomplished in modernizing the budget process to prioritize transparency and accountability,” Horman wrote Friday. “This work is critical to limiting the size of government and utilizing the people’s money in efficient and effective ways, with a focus on return on investment for Idaho taxpayers.”

Horman’s resignation creates vacancy in Idaho Legislature and at head of budget committee

In addition to creating a vacancy in the Idaho Legislature, Horman’s resignation creates a vacancy atop the budget committee just a week before the 2026 legislative session begins Jan. 12.

To fill the vacancy in the Idaho Legislature, the Republican legislative committee from Horman’s Legislative District 32 in Bonneville County will provide Little with a list of three possible nominees to succeed Horman. Little will then appoint someone to serve out the remainder of Horman’s term in the Idaho Legislature, which expires at the end of 2026.

Like all 105 seats in the Idaho Legislature, Horman’s former legislative seat will be up for election in 2026.

House leadership – led by Speaker Moyle – also must fill the vacant co-chair position on JFAC that Horman’s resignation creates. Possible candidates include JFAC Vice Chairman Steven Miller, R-Fairfield, and Rep. Josh Tanner, an Eagle Republican who is an ally of Moyle’s and serves as assistant majority leader in the Idaho House.

Moyle will likely be able to appoint whoever he wants from the Idaho House to lead JFAC. The appointment of committee chairs and committee members typically happens behind closed doors during the organizational session following an election year, so not much is publicly known or seen about the process.

Moyle said Horman is the third committee chairperson to leave the Idaho House in the months leading up to the 2026 legislative session. Former House Agriculture Affairs Chairman Kevin Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs, and House Business Committee Chairman Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, announced their resignations from the Idaho Legislature this fall.

Moyle said Friday he has some ideas about filling the JFAC co-chair position, but said he wants to sit down with the rest of his Republican leadership team in the Idaho House before making his plans public.

“I like to pick chairmen that are loyal, that work hard and that have what’s best for Idaho at heart,” Moyle said. “To replace Wendy is going to be tough. The fact is, between you and me, nobody can replace Wendy.”

Because of the heavy budget workload, Moyle said he will likely pick someone with experience on the committee to serve as House co-chair of JFAC. He said he plans to announce the new JFAC co-chair before the 2026 legislative session starts Jan. 12.

“There is no choice — that committee starts right out of the gate,” Moyle said. “Those chairmen are having meetings and agencies are calling, and there is a lot going on with that committee. It’s going to happen sooner rather than later.”

Grow said the timing of Moyle’s pick for a new JFAC co-chair will be critical — the sooner Moyle can make a decision the better, Grow said.

Grow said he is eager to begin working with the new co-chair and hopes that he will have a similarly cooperative relationship with whoever the new co-chair is.

“One of the challenges in a joint committee, whether it be JFAC or any of the other joint committees, is that no one individual is in charge,” Grow said. “So it is imperative that the co-chairs work unitedly. No decision can be made unilaterally by a co-chair and so nothing moves forward unless both co-chairs agree.”

Grow said he hopes the new co-chair will agree to the same procedures that he and Horman operated under. Grow also said JFAC has already published its hearing schedules for the 2026 legislative session, and he hopes the new co-chair will agree to the same schedule.

Hormans’s new role at Health and Human Services

In Washington, D.C., at her new role, Horman will be working for Adams, the assistant secretary for family support. Horman and Adams got to know each other in Idaho when Adams served as the administrator for the Idaho Division of Financial Management and the two worked on setting the state’s budget.

Adams most recently served as the director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare from June 2024, until he was appointed to his new position in Washington, D.C.

On Oct. 7, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Adams as assistant secretary for family support.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.