Iowa Senate lawmakers sent a bill that would create a Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa to the governor’s desk on Tuesday.
The bill, House File 437, would create a new center that would teach classes and do research on the “historical ideas, tradition, and texts that have shaped the American constitutional order and society.”
The bill would also require the center to offer university-wide programming on free speech and civil discourse.
The bill passed the Iowa Senate on Tuesday and is now headed to the governor’s desk for her approval. The bill was approved along party lines, 32-15.
“This bill creates a huge step forward in strengthening civic education in Iowa’s three regent universities and in promoting greater intellectual diversity at the University of Iowa,” Iowa Sen. Kerry Gruenhagen, R-Walcott, said during his opening remarks on the bill.
It is estimated to cost the UI approximately $1.5 million per year to run the new center, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency.
Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, said the bill gets “less bang for the public buck” by creating a costly department that is duplicative of services already offered at the university.
“Establishing the center entails significant startup costs with no guarantee of sustained enrollment or interest,” Weiner said. “Taxpayer funds could better be used elsewhere as in including improving existing programs that already covered these topics, reducing tuition, and expanding research.”
The bill would also require the center teach at least one three-semester-hour course on American history and civil governance, and the bill authorizes the Board of Regents and the university to create any degree programs under the school it sees fit.
Iowa Sen. Matt Blake, D-Urbandale, said the requirement the school offer an American history course that talks about the Constitution is duplicative because the UI already offers such a class.
“We already have the curriculum in place to teach the civics that we need in our higher institutions,” Blake said. “To me, what this [bill] is doing is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, and what we’re doing is adding more bureaucracy and more duplicity within our universities.”
The bill would insulate the center from hiring and firing decisions by the university by allowing only faculty members affiliated with the center to make tenure decisions.
The bill also creates an advisory council that would appoint the director of the new school. The director would be the department’s executive officer and have sole hiring and firing capability.
Iowa governor submits waiver for Medicaid work requirements
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds directed the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to submit a waiver asking the federal government to allow the state to establish work requirements for Medicaid benefits.
The waiver asks the federal government to allow Iowa to require able-bodied Medicaid recipients work at least 20 hours a week to remain eligible for benefits.
“It has always been a priority of mine to make sure our government programs reflect a culture of work. It is common sense and good policy,” Reynolds said in a news release Tuesday. “If you are an able-bodied adult who can work, you should work. We need to return Medicaid back to its core purpose — to provide coverage to the people who truly need it.”
In a news release, the governor’s office said the waiver is similar to current legislation pending in the Iowa House and Senate and includes “common-sense exemptions.”
Those include:
- A person under 19 years old
- A person who is over 64 years old
- A person who is disabled
- A person who is medically frail or medically exempt under Medicaid
- A caretaker of a dependent child under six years old
- A woman with a high-risk pregnancy
- A person receiving unemployment benefits
- A person participating in substance use disorder treatment
If an Iowan is found to not comply with the work requirements, they would be given time to do so, according to the news release, but would lose coverage if they don’t become compliant.
According to the new release, nearly 100,000 Iowa Medicaid recipients report no income, and there are approximately 171,000 able-bodied adults on Medicaid.
The news release said the change aims to help recipients take “an active role in their health and well-being, while preserving Medicaid for those who need it most.”
Iowa HHS will launch a 30-day public comment period and host two public hearings to gather input from Iowans, according to the release.
Iowa Senate sends bill exempting birthing centers from condition of need process to governor
Iowa Senate lawmakers sent a bill exempting standalone birthing centers from the state condition of need process, in which new health care centers have to prove that need exists, to the governor’s desk on Tuesday.
Advocates for the bill, House File 887, said the bill will give women more options to choose from when deciding where they want to give birth. Birthing centers offer birthing care services for low-risk pregnancies typically provided by doulas or midwives.
The bill was approved unanimously by the Iowa Senate on Tuesday and now heads to the governor’s desk for her signature before it becomes law.
Iowa Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-Windsor Heights, said because of the current barriers to creating a birthing center, Iowa does not have any, which could help address maternal health care deserts in the state.
“There are some really difficult barriers to birth centers opening in the state of Iowa — that’s why we have none,” Trone Garriott said. “We hope this is an opportunity for more options for parents for childbirth.”
Iowa Sen. Kara Warme, R-Ames, said there needs to be further consideration of the condition of need process altogether a barrier to solving the issues facing health care in Iowa.
“We are due in this chamber, a study on certificate of need, more broadly, by the end of the year,” Warme said. “I’m looking forward to that and hoping that we can continue to remove these regulations that take away access and increase cost.”