This was Week 7 of the session. We are quickly coming up on the funnel date when individually filed policy bills must be through committee to remain eligible for debate. Thursday, the Iowa House and Senate passed Senate File 418, a return to common sense by removing “gender identity” as a ...
Most Iowans aren’t satisfied with their state government. That’s what we’ve been hearing at the Capitol, at town halls and legislative forums, on social media, and in our daily conversations. Your goals and aspirations aren’t being reflected by the choices made on your behalf. Your ...
On February 10, I made it over to the state capitol in Des Moines to check out the “Defeat the Cancer Gag Act” day of action hosted by CCI Action, Food & Water Watch, and others. Bayer seems to be spearheading the effort behind Senate File 394 that, if passed, would make it harder for ...
Q: What should taxpayers keep in mind during tax season? A: The IRS officially kicked off tax season and started accepting and processing federal individual tax returns for the 2024 tax year. The federal tax-collecting agency this year expects more than 140 million individual tax returns. ...
Last week, over the objections of Senate Democrats and school districts around the state, Senate Republicans advanced a school funding bill that will continue to leave our public schools underfunded and force our students to do more with less. Senate Republicans, in concert with Gov. ...
Week 4 of the session was marked with sorrow and reflection as we mourned the loss of one of our House colleagues, Rep. Martin Graber. Rep. Graber was not only a beloved husband and father, but also a 32 year veteran of the Iowa National Guard, retiring as a Brigadier General. He was elected ...
Last week, in an effort to tackle an ongoing crisis that affects Iowa’s children, families, and workers alike, Senate Democrats are turning our attention toward one of Iowa’s most persistent issues: childcare. Childcare is one of the single-largest expenses in the monthly budget for any ...
People are talking about Iowa’s alarming cancer rates, but they need to turn up the volume. “We have to start getting loud with our elected officials about doing something about it,” Iowa Cancer Registry Director Mary Charlton recently told Iowa Capital Dispatch. Iowa had the ...
The Iowa legislature seems to be in full swing now. The state Senate and House have Republican supermajorities, the largest since 1970, so this is their legislative session to be had. Seeing as how many of them represent folks like me in rural Iowa, I sure hope they don’t forget about us and ...
Week 2 of the session is done, and the committee work of moving bills through the system is well underway. The first bill that I’ve begun to advance is a resolution, House Joint Resolution 1, that seeks to add the right to hunt, fish, and trap to the state constitution. Our rights to these ...