A panel of Iowa House lawmakers advanced legislation prohibiting state entities from funding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Tuesday.
Under House File 155, state entities would be prohibited from spending money to fund DEI offices or to hire individuals to serve as DEI officers.
The bill defines a state entity as including but not limited to a state agency, department, division, board, commission, institutions or authority — city, a county, a township — or any other political subdivision or special district in the state.
The legislation follows a Feb. 14 notice sent by the Department of Government Efficiency and the Department of Education which would require state education departments to eliminate all DEI programming within 14 days or lose federal funding.
Keenan Crow, lobbyist for One Iowa, said House File 155 goes further than other anti-DEI legislation introduced in the past.
Crow pointed specifically to a section of the bill that prohibits “any effort to promote or promulgate trainings, programming, or activities designed or implemented with reference to race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”
Crow said this line of the bill would prohibit the celebration of Black History Month, which lasts through the month of February.
“It precludes a number of things that people not only don’t find objectionable, but in fact, find beneficial,” they said.
Denise Rathman, lobbyist with the National Association of Social Workers Iowa Chapter, registered opposed to the bill and said the legislation is extremely broad and goes across all levels of government.
Rathman said the legislation would have negative implications for social workers. She said it is imperative that social workers are “absolutely, positively in tune” with the different aspects people who are seeking services bring to the table with them.
She said, similar to Crow, she worries about the restriction on training, and Iowa requires licensed social workers to complete three hours of general ethics training.
“But for social workers that are working with different backgrounds of people, it’s important for them to be able to get that training,” Rathman said.
Nathan Arnold, lobbyist for Professional Educators of Iowa, registered in favor of the bill and said DEI offices are a “recipe that guarantees failure.”
Arnold said DEI offices are always on “witch hunts, looking to peg someone for something that was misconstrued and deemed offensive.”
Arnold said this is hard on the employees of an organization as well as students, and it detracts decision makers from focusing on the success of the organization.
He referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that Harvard’s use of race in admissions violated the Constitution, overturning the use of affirmative action in college admissions.
“I think it ushers in a new era, hopefully an era where equal treatment actually means equal treatment, and where companies focus on the success and the mission of the organization, first and foremost, In a way that’s inclusive to everybody,” he said.
Iowa Rep. Mary Madison, D-West Des Moines, said she rejects the bill and all of its premises. Madison said the bill will limit the performance of children and adults of color
“If we go back to our country, it’s started by people of different religions, different colors, different nationalities,” Madison said. “And so what this does is put everybody in a box, and if you don’t look the same, walk, the same, talk, the same, there’s a problem.”
Madison said people do not want to go to a time without diversity, equity in education, and fairness in the workplace.
“This is a witch hunt to put us all back in a little box again, and I can tell you that nobody’s going there, no matter what you call it,” she said.
Iowa governor introduces health care initiatives
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced legislation to boost the state’s health care workforce and improve rural health services Tuesday.
The legislation would expand student loan repayment programs and create new residency slots at Iowa’s teaching hospitals.
RELATED: Reynolds honed in on health care reforms, workforce in annual address
Reynolds signaled improving access to health care for Iowans as a legislative priority in her Condition of the State speech on Jan. 14.
The legislation would more than double current state-funded student loan repayment programs to $10 million, a jump from $4.2 million.
The program would be open to anyone who commits to practicing in rural Iowa for five years, even if they trained outside of the state.
Reynolds also proposed to create a projected 115 new residency slots. Within the span of four years, this would generate 460 new physicians in Iowa.
Directed by the state Department of Health and Human Services, the program would be supported by $150 million in federal funds.
“The well-being of working families and rural communities depends on access to high quality health care,” Reynolds said in a news release Tuesday. “Iowa has a strong foundation to build on, but we need more medical professionals, including specialists, in every part of the state.”
Iowa is ranked among the worst states in the nation for physician-to-patient ratio, sitting 44th in the U.S. for physicians per capita, according to the Iowa Medical Society.
The national physician shortage is expected to expand rapidly, an analysis published by the Association of American Medical College projected the U.S. will face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036.
Reynolds also introduced legislation to unbundle Medicaid maternal rates and invest $642,000 to increase rates for health care providers who support mothers and babies.
The bill directs Iowa HHS to seek federal approval to provide more Medicaid rate flexibility with an underlying goal of incentivizing regional partnerships.