Iowa lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday that would codify Secretary of State Paul Pate’s plan to root out noncitizen voters from Iowa’s voter registration roles, among other changes to the state’s elections laws.

The bill comes after Pate ordered election officials across the state last October to challenge the eligibility to vote for voters they suspected might be noncitizens attempting to vote in the 2024 election.

Pate’s office compiled a secret list of suspected noncitizens by comparing voter rolls with a list from the state’s Department of Transportation that listed people who indicated they were noncitizens on DOT forms.

Pate was sued for the move by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, but the suit was unsuccessful.

The bill, House Study Bill 281, would require the Secretary of State to contract with state and federal partners to verify voter registration data. The bill would also require the DOT to send the list of noncitizens who filled out DOT forms to the Secretary of State’s office to verify the voter rolls.

Under the bill, if a county auditor or the Secretary of State suspects someone is a noncitizen attempting to register to vote, which is against the law, they would have to mark their registration status as unconfirmed. Under the bill, someone marked unconfirmed would have to prove they are eligible to vote to an election official to move to an active status.

The bill would also increase the threshold for a political party to gain major party status in Iowa, increasing the share of votes the party’s candidate for president or governor must earn or maintain major party status from 2 percent to 10 percent of the total votes.

The bill would also limit eligibility objections for federal offices to the nomination papers and eligibility requirements listed in the U.S. Constitution barring challenges for candidacy based on felony convictions and residency requirements.

The bill also would ban rank-choice voting.

A panel of lawmakers advanced the bill in a 2-1 vote on Wednesday, and it will be considered by the whole House State Government Committee on Thursday.

Iowa lawmakers table a bill expanding name, image, and likeness rights for college athletes

Iowa House lawmakers tabled a bill to expand Name, Image, and Likeness rights, commonly referred to as NIL, of college student athletes Wednesday.

Iowa Rep. Devon Wood, R-New Market, introduced the legislation as a way to keep Iowa’s three public universities competitive for recruiting athletes.

In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the NCAA cannot prohibit student athletes from profiting from NIL.

Iowa’s bill, House File 628, provides that a student athlete’s financial aid eligibility will not be affected by the student athlete’s earning compensation from the use of name, image, and likeness rights. The bill stipulates that athletic programs cannot prevent a student athlete from receiving compensation for using their NIL rights or athletic reputation for a commercial purpose.

Wood said the legislation is a way to explore using NIL as a recruitment retention tool for Iowa students.

RELATED: Iowa lawmakers, governor could get pay raise under bill advanced Tuesday

“Caitlin Clark made just a huge impact on our state, and I know that she was interested in being recruited by other schools, and I’m going to say how lucky we are that they did not pursue her?” Wood said. “We were able to, for one, watch such an amazing athlete, but right in our backyard. And I just think about those kids that growing up watching her play that potentially are now thinking about staying in the state of Iowa, to go to school, because they know they’re going to get to watch top-tier athletes just like her.”

Wood said it is difficult to quantify the impact Clark and athletes like her had on Iowa.

The legislation would allow the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa, to allow endorsement deals between student athletes and third parties.

The legislation also stipulates that financial aid from a post-secondary educational institution is not considered compensation for use of the athlete’s name, image, and likeness rights.

The bill prohibits colleges from interfering or preventing student athletes from obtaining professional representation for contracts or legal matters related to earning compensation.

Under the bill, student athletes would be able to bring a civil action against third parties that violate the provisions of the bill or that interfere with their earnings. Student athletes could push for injunctive relief and actual damages.

Iowa Rep. J.C. Scholten, D-Sioux City, said the bill isn’t ready, and more needs to be done to make sure Iowa can be competitive with athletic recruitment while also protecting students and institutions.

Scholten played college baseball at Morningside College in Iowa and the University of Nebraska in Lincoln before playing professionally,

“I’m very passionate about college athletics and stuff,” he said. “It’s meant the world to me, being able to do that. I’m very interested in NIL, and I think NCAA has really failed students.”

Scholten, the lone Democrat on the bill, urged the panel not to pass the legislation through to the next step in the legislative process and said he is interested in working on the issue in the future.

“I will also just say Caitlin Clark came here without this bill,” he said.

The bill was tabled, as lawmakers decided there needed to be more work done to the legislation before attempting to have it passed into law.