Iowa lawmakers act on religion, gender, school funding, and more

Feb. 26 "Capitol Week" is online

The Iowa House and Senate were busy during the first week of floor debate, and Dennis Hart and I did our best to keep up this Monday.

Before I get to the program, I want to take a moment to remember Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl. Dennis and I haven’t talked about him on the show, but I was heartbroken on Friday evening by his sudden passing. I’ve been following his adventures since last spring—not long after he escaped from a vandalized enclosure at the Central Park Zoo—and was inspired by how he taught himself to fly, hunt, and thrive in the city despite having no life experience or mentors to follow.

My husband gave me a Flaco print and sticker for Chanukah. The print’s near my desk at home, and the sticker is on my laptop.

Flaco print and sticker, created from photos by David Lei

On to the February 26 program. Remember, you can subscribe to “KHOI’s Capitol Week” on your preferred podcast platform if you prefer to listen when you are out and about. KHOI’s website has the full archive going back to 2021.

Legislative news dominated the program:

• We began with several bills the Iowa House approved late Monday afternoon, shortly before we were on the air. On a party-line vote, the chamber approved Senate File 2096, which repeals Iowa’s landmark gender-balance requirement for boards and commissions. The Senate approved the same bill last Tuesday, with Democrat Herman Quirmbach joining Republicans to vote in favor;

• Also on Monday, House members unanimously approved the “anti-swatting” bill, Senate File 2161. The Senate had unanimously passed it last week. This legislation will increase penalties for deliberately making a false report to a public safety entity;

• Another unanimous vote for Senate File 2204, which increases the reporting requirements for foreign entities that own Iowa farmland. Governor Kim Reynolds had urged lawmakers to approve this bill and celebrated its passage in a news release;

• The Teamsters rallied at the state capitol last Wednesday, and the AFL-CIO held an event in the rotunda on Monday to protest the latest union-busting bill moving through the legislature. Senate File 2374 would make it easier for public sector employers to prevent unions from holding recertification elections that have been required in every contract period since 2017;

• Moving to last week’s legislative news: on Tuesday, the Senate approved Senate File 2095, the so-called “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (also known as the right-to-discriminate act). About two dozen states already have similar laws on the books;

• The House unanimously approved House File 2489, requiring health insurance policies to cover diagnostic breast exams such as a mammogram, MRI, or ultrasound;

• Voting along party lines, the House approved House File 2613 to increase state supplemental aid for public K-12 schools by 3 percent. (Democrats unsuccessfully offered an amendment to increase school funding by 6 percent.) It’s important to understand that this doesn’t mean every school district will receive 3 percent more from the state than last year. Rather, state aid per-pupil would rise to $7,864, and so would the amount the state provides in “education savings accounts” to cover private school tuition. Many school districts with declining enrollment will receive less from the state next year than they did for this year;

• In a mostly party-line vote, House Republicans approved House File 2305, which would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work unsupervised caring for children under age 5 at child care centers. Democrats would prefer to address the child care workforce shortage by paying employees more;

• A Senate Ways and Means subcommittee advanced Senate Study Bill 3102, which “would make it easier for landlords to evict tenants with a shorter timeline.” I should have made it more clear during the program that this bill hasn’t come to the floor of the Iowa Senate yet;

• Back to bills that made it through one chamber: House members approved House File 2464, which would not allow financial institutions to assign special codes to retailers that sell firearms. I mentioned on the program that six Democrats joined Republicans to vote yes. Those were Molly Buck, Jeff Cooling, John Forbes, Rick Olson, Josh Turek, and Elizabeth Wilson;

• The Iowa Senate approved a blood donation bill along party lines. I was fascinated by the debate over Senate File 2369 and wrote about it in more depth at Bleeding Heartland;

• The House overwhelmingly approved House File 2539, which is designed to strengthen local government compliance with Iowa’s open meetings and open records laws. I wrote more about the bill and other legislation related to Iowa’s sunshine laws at Bleeding Heartland;

• On Wednesday, Iowans turned out in large numbers for the public hearing on House Republicans’ proposal to reform Area Education Agencies;

• It took the Iowa House Ethics Committee less than two minutes to dismiss a complaint filed against Republican State Representative Jeff Shipley. The Des Moines Register’s Chris Higgins covered this story, but I will have more to say in a post at Bleeding Heartland;

• The Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Friday that the League of United Latin American Citizens cannot obtain emails between key state legislators and third parties related to election bills approved in 2021. William Morris covered this decision for the Des Moines Register;

• We briefly touched on several bills that did not make it past the legislature’s “funnel” deadline early this month, related to school chaplains, policies to criminalize homelessness, expanding Iowa’s medical cannabis program, banning the purchase of firefighters’ suits containing carcinogens, creating classroom spending accounts for teachers, and penalties for exposing a child to a drag performance. In theory, none of these can be considered this year, though some could be added to other legislation as amendments;

• Moving back to the judicial branch, we discussed the legal arguments presented to the Iowa Supreme Court in the case over Iowa’s near-total abortion ban. A Polk County District Court blocked enforcement of the law last summer, and the state has appealed that decision. The ACLU of Iowa is representing Planned Parenthood, which is asking the Iowa Supreme Court to leave the injunction in place and send the case back to District Court for trial. The state wants the high court to rule that abortion restrictions are subject to “rational basis” review, which would guarantee that the law is upheld. Planned Parenthood argues that the legal standard should be a balancing test, that weighs competing interests of the pregnant person and the state;

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved year-round sales of E15 ethanol blends, but delayed implementation until April 2025. Governor Reynolds and some other Republicans criticized the delay;

• The Iowa Democratic Party says about 19,000 Iowans requested “presidential preference cards,” which will need to be returned to the party by March 5. The cards give voters four options: Joe Biden, Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson, and uncommitted;

• Senator Chuck Grassley had no comment last week after federal prosecutors asserted in a court filing that a former FBI informant has ties to Russian intelligence. I wrote more about this at Bleeding Heartland, because that informant was the source for bribery allegations Grassley has been hyping for a long time;

• The Iowa House unanimously approved a resolution declaring February 22 to be “Caitlin Clark” day. I forgot to mention on the show that 22 is Clark’s jersey number.

Thank you for reading or listening!

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Take some time to check out work by other Iowa Writers Collaborative members, listed here in alphabetical order:

Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center

Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities

Dartanyan Brown, My Integrated Life, Des Moines

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Jane Burns: The Crossover, Des Moines

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup

Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Daniel Finney: The Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny

Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia

Chris Jones, Chris’s Substack, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Letters from Iowans, Iowa

Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities

Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Vicki Minor, Relatively Minor, Winterset

Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids

Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines

Steve Semken: The Pulse of a Heartland Publisher, North Liberty

Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Jason Walsmith, The Racontourists, Earlham

Kali White VanBaale, 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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