A trio of rare events in the Iowa legislature
March 11 "Capitol Week" is online
It was a weird week at the state capitol, and I enjoyed talking through it all with Dennis Hart on Monday evening.
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On to our March 11 program.
We began with a little bit of presidential campaign news but spent most of our time on legislative happenings.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump came close to running the table on Super Tuesday, prompting their last remaining opponents to drop out of the race;
The Iowa Democratic Party announced the results from its mail-in caucus last week. I highly recommend John Deeth’s assessment of the first attempt at a party-run primary and how the system could be improved for 2028;
The latest Iowa Poll by Selzer & Co for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom shows Trump with a 15-point lead over Biden, 48 percent to 33 percent;
Biden delivered a spirited State of the Union address last Thursday and mingled with members of Congress for about 30 minutes afterwards. Democrats seemed energized by the event, and it helped that the GOP response by U.S. Senator Katie Britt was a disaster;
Moving to legislative news: the Iowa House passed the latest bill changing the election system. House File 2610 would further restrict absentee voting, with a total ban on drop boxes, and earlier deadline for returning absentee ballots, and other provisions that make it more likely absentee ballots won’t be counted. The House amended the bill to delay the new absentee ballot rules until 2025, but other parts of the bill (aimed at ensuring Trump will be on the ballot) would take effect immediately;
The Selzer poll showed a majority of respondents support requiring absentee ballots to arrive by the day before the election. But most respondents didn’t support a ban on drop boxes or the provision allowing people with felony convictions to appear on an Iowa ballot;
Also last week, the House passed House File 2575, which increases penalties for non-consensually ending a pregnancy, and changes the wording of the statute from “terminating a human pregnancy” to “causing the death of an unborn person.” The bill also defines “unborn person” as an individual from fertilization to birth, raising concerns that it could threaten in vitro fertilization. I wrote much more about this bill and the House debate at Bleeding Heartland;
In a party-line vote, House members approved House File 2608, which creates a new crime of “smuggling” non-citizens, and requires the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to verify the citizenship status of Iowans who apply for public assistance programs. That is already standard practice at HHS, and opponents have warned that if this bill is enacted, more children in mixed-status households may end up not receiving benefits to which they are entitled;
The Iowa Senate voted along party lines last week to make it a crime for undocumented immigrants to enter Iowa. Democrats said Senate File 2340 is unconstitutional (since immigration law is the purview of the federal government) and also impractical;
Various bills regulating social media continue to advance with bipartisan support. House members voted 88 to 6 for House File 2523, which would require children to have their parents' permission to open and use social media accounts. I suspect this law would be very difficult to enforce;
Selzer’s Iowa Poll showed 55 percent of Iowans support requiring parental consent for children to have social media accounts. About 42 percent of respondents opposed the idea;
House members unanimously approved House File 2240, which is aimed at prohibiting “deepfake” porn materials, and Senate File 2243, which is similar but addresses deepfakes depicting children engaged in sexual acts;
The House voted 93 to 1 for House File 2630, which greatly increases starting pay for teachers and would also increase pay for other school staff, such as para-educators. This was an adaptation of Governor Kim Reynolds’ teacher pay proposal. Republican State Representative Mark Cisneros was the only member to oppose the bill;
Last week the House Appropriations Committee approved House File 2652, which would provide $3 million in funding for school districts to help staff obtain and carry firearms at school;
On March 11, House members unanimously approved House File 2637, which increases the adoption tax credit from $5,000 to $20,000;
One of the strangest things to happen in the legislature this year occurred in the House last Wednesday, when Republicans failed to get the 51 votes needed to pass Senate File 455, which restricts local government authority to regulate stormwater and topsoil. I wrote more about that at Bleeding Heartland. House leaders brought the bill back to the floor on March 11, and were able to get 53 votes in favor. But ten Republicans joined all Democrats to oppose the latest intrusion onto local control;
The next day, House leaders pulled a different bill in the middle of floor debate, which is also extremely rare. House File 2363 was supposed to help mothers by forcing fathers to help cover pregnancy and birth-related expenses. But as I discussed near the end of this post, Democrats pointed out that the wording could allow men to go to court to force risky, invasive paternity tests on pregnant women. Before a vote on final passage was called, the majority leader announced he was deferring on the bill;
Continuing on the weirdness track: the Iowa Senate was expected to debate their version of legislation on Area Education Agencies on Tuesday. But leaders adjourned for the day without bringing that bill to the floor, and held no floor debate on Wednesday or Thursday. It’s so rare for any bill to appear on the Senate calendar but not be called up for debate. Many are speculating that Senate GOP leaders don’t have the votes to pass their preferred AEA bill;
Dennis and I spent a couple of minutes talking about the different cultures in the Iowa House and Senate. Although Republicans control both chambers, the Senate caucus is generally much more united, whereas House Republicans are often more willing to challenge leadership. That’s another reason reporters and other observers were so surprised to see the AEA bill in trouble in the Senate last week;
The Senate also approved Senate File 2325, a civil service bill last week, with an amendment that would ban citizen review boards of police departments;
Voting along party lines, the Senate approved Senate File 2196, which would require school districts to inform parents about exemptions that are available for mandator childhood immunizations;
In another party-line vote, the Senate passed Senate File 2370, which would change the executive branch rule making process. Governor Reynolds proposed this bill, and the Senate made only minor changes;
We explained the importance of the second “funnel” deadline, coming up this Friday, March 15;
The Selzer poll indicates that 60 percent of Iowans support arming school teachers and staff. As you might expect, Republican respondents were much more supportive, whereas the majority of Democrats opposed the idea;
According to Selzer, 62 percent of Iowans support phasing out the individual income tax, whereas 30 percent oppose that policy. I question the value of polling on this question without making clear that sales and property taxes would almost certainly go up if Iowa had no income tax;
One last Selzer poll: an overwhelming 79 percent of Iowans support letting pharmacies dispense hormonal birth control without a prescription. Even among Republican respondents, 70 percent are in favor. It’s not clear whether the House will approve House File 2584, which would enact this policy.
Thank you for reading or listening! If you enjoy our coverage, please consider becoming a member of KHOI. In all the years I’ve been writing about Iowa politics, I’ve only been invited to appear on other Iowa radio stations a handful of times. KHOI gave Dennis and me a regular platform more than three years ago, and we’ve recorded more than 160 shows together.
👍Like others, I really appreciate your brief and very understandable summaries. While I am a snowbird residing in Alabama for the winter, your weekly summaries keep us connected. Thanks.
Thank you, Laura and Dennis for your continued dedication to keeping us informed. I look forward to your weekly report.