Iowa lawmakers introduced more than 2,000 bills this legislative session, but only a few hundred made it past the latest legislative deadline.
The deadline helps limit the number of bills lawmakers are able to consider. All House bills must have been voted out of House committees and all Senate bills must have been voted out of Senate committees by Friday.
Lawmakers still advanced hundreds of bills out of the more than 2,301 introduced this year. This is more than each of the previous five years individually, resulting in a massive lift for lawmakers looking to get their proposals across the finish line.
The deadline does not apply to bills that deal with state tax policy and spending bills lawmakers can consider at any time during the session. Legislative leaders also have a number of procedural tricks they can use to revive a bill.
The next funnel deadline is April 4 when House bills will have to be voted out of their Senate committee and Senate bills out of their House committee. Now lawmakers will turn their attention towards tax and spending bills and voting bills out of the chamber.
Republicans are in their ninth year of control, with agenda-setting majorities in the House and Senate, along with Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in the governor’s mansion.
Iowa lawmakers kill bill to criminalize homelessness
Iowa lawmakers killed a bill that would make it a state crime to sleep on public property and reduce the amount of time to remove abandoned property from public spaces. The bill, House Study Bill 286, would result in up to 30 days in jail and up to an $855 fine if a person is found in violation of the bill.
A Senate version of the bill was tabled in the Iowa Senate after Sen. Dave Sires, R-Cedar Falls, joined Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, in opposing the bill during a subcommittee hearing.
The bill was advanced along party lines in the House on Wednesday and was scheduled for a Thursday committee meeting, but it was pulled from consideration by the committee chair and bill author Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison.
Iowa House Republicans advance spate of higher education proposals
Iowa House lawmakers advanced a laundry list of legislative reforms for Iowa’s higher education system ahead of the funnel deadline including proposals that would limit diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in Iowa’s community colleges and private universities.
Republicans also advanced a bill that would prohibit Iowa’s regent universities from requiring classes from teaching DEI or critical race theory to complete a degree unless it is clear from the name or description of the degree being offered.
Iowa House Republicans advanced a bill that would require the Iowa Board of Regents to review all academic programs and if they address workforce needs.
Iowa House Republicans advance bills on immigration
Iowa House lawmakers also killed a bill that would require local law enforcement to enter into an agreement with federal immigration authorities to enforce federal immigration laws.
The bill, House Study Bill 187, would require local and state law enforcement agencies to enter into an agreement with ICE to identify and process the removal of immigrants lacking permanent legal status who are arrested by the agencies for pending or filed criminal charges.
Lawmakers instead advanced a bill requiring local law enforcement to comply with federal immigration law enforcement.
All of Reynolds’ legislative proposals made it across the finish line Friday. Among those that advanced are:
- Senate File 370 and House File 782 banning cellphones in the classroom during instruction
- House File 754 and Senate Study Bill 1163 increasing the number of residency slots in Iowa by drawing down federal funds and doubling the investment in rural loan repayment programs for physicians
- House File 623 and Senate File 445 codifying a pilot program aimed at child care worker wage enhancement and a statewide grant to provide for full day care for a child attending half day preschool