End looms for Iowa's legislative session as key priorities await action

DES MOINES — After a busy session marked by a dramatically conservative policy agenda including education overhauls, this week may be the last for the 2023 legislative session.

With the state budgeting process underway, lawmakers are hoping to finish that up and pass lingering policy bills by the end of the week. A few remaining budget bills will need to be passed, and as of Thursday House Speaker Pat Grassley of New Hartford said he was expecting they would be ready for consideration today.

“Obviously we’re trying to put ourselves in a position that next week we’d be able to wrap up session,” Grassley said Thursday.

Last week, lawmakers advanced budgets dealing with agriculture and natural resources, government administration and health and human services. The state fiscal year budget begins July 1.

The following budgets remain:

•Economic Development

•Education

•Department of Justice and Corrections

•Judicial system

•Standings (K-12 and other recurring expenses)

In total, the agreed top-line budget for fiscal 2024 will be about $8.5 billion, a 3.7 percent increase from last year. Republicans said the total represents an increase in priority programs and services while keeping the budget sustainable.

But the details of the remaining budget bills are nearly nonexistent, as Senate Republicans have moved “shell” budget bills with no dollar figures out of committee. Last week, lawmakers amended shell budget bills on the floor with actual values that Republicans had agreed on before taking a final vote.

“Republicans are trying to shut the session down, but Iowans are still in the dark about how we’ll actually be funding huge and critical areas of state government,” complained Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, D-Coralville.

Relaxing child labor restrictions

Another top bill that may see action this week is one to open more jobs to 14- to 17-year-olds in Iowa. The bill would also allow 14- and 15-year-olds to work later hours, and allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work the same hours as adults.

The bill, Senate File 542, was already passed in the Senate and would need to pass the House before being eligible to be signed into law.

Backed by business groups including the Iowa Restaurant Association and the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, the bill would give more opportunities to young people and allow them to earn a paycheck and learn valuable lessons, Republicans say.

But Democrats argue the bill, opposed by groups including building trade unions and the United Way of Central Iowa, would weaken child protection measures and put teenagers in potentially dangerous work environments. House Democrats have proposed more than 20 amendments targeting specific portions of the bill.

The practice is common on controversial bills, and amendments offered by the minority party are almost always voted down on party lines. But Grassley said Republicans are talking with Democrats about potentially taking up some of those amendments.

“We know there's some in there that are just for votes, and we get that, but I think there's genuinely some amendments in there that we should at least have conversations with them on,” he said.

If it is amended and passed by the House, the bill would bounce back to the Senate for final approval.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, a Democrat from Windsor Heights, said she hopes the bill never comes up for a vote in the chamber.

“I’m hopeful that we can stop this because enough people will see that the bill is dangerous, it’s irresponsible and it’s written by special interests,” she said. “And it’s language from another state. Iowans didn’t even write the bill.”

Limiting property taxes

A goal established before the sessions began in January that has eluded lawmakers may yet see a deal before adjournment, as leaders in both chambers seek to pass a bill to limit property taxes.

Both the House and the Senate passed separate bills this month — House File 718 and Senate File 569 — with the goal of keeping Iowans’ property tax bills down amid soaring assessment increases. But the bills, which passed with near-unanimous support in both chambers, used different mechanisms to accomplish that, and no agreement has been announced to reconcile the two.

Leaders in both parties said they want to come to a deal before the end of this year’ session.

“There is a lot of uncertainty in the impacts that will happen from these assessments,” Grassley said. “So I think we feel pretty strongly about trying to find something that will try to ease some of those fears from Iowans.”

Democratic leaders agreed, saying they want to pass a bill that will temper Iowans’ property tax bills without limiting the growth and budgets of Iowa communities.

“We’ve got to get something done; the clock’s ticking,” Wahls said.

Allowing loaded guns in parking lots

A bill that would allow guns in more public parking lots — including at schools in limited cases — may not see final passage before the week’s end.

The bill, House File 654, would allow permit-holding gun owners to have a gun in a parking lot of a school when picking up or dropping off someone, if it is out of sight and the car is locked while not attended. It would also allow guns in locked cars at Iowa’s public universities, and any unsecured public parking lot.

Iowans would also be able to carry loaded guns in their cars on public highways, and it would remove some language that dictates who cannot own a gun from Iowa law.

The bill’s Senate floor manager, Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, said last week he did not know whether it would be ready for a vote before the end of session. He said there are issues with the insurance portion of the bill — which would block insurers from denying coverage to schools solely because of the presence of guns — and with portions of the bill that expand who can own and carry a gun, that had to be addressed before passing in the Senate.

Caucuses changes

Grassley said the House also is expecting to pass a bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton, that would require Iowa caucuses to be held in-person and require registration with a party 70 days in advance of the caucuses.

House File 716 would upend Iowa Democrats’ plans to hold their 2024 presidential caucuses mostly by mail, a plan devised in a bid to keep the caucus first-in-the-nation for Democrats as the national party announced plans last year to change the nomination calendar. Iowa Democrats eventually lost that spot, but kept the mail-in plan.

Republicans say that Democratic’ plan would effectively make the party-run caucus process into a government-run primary, and thereby prompt the New Hampshire Secretary of State to move that state’s primary before Iowa — and knocking the Republican caucuses off the first spot in the process.

Grassley indicated the bill may see changes before it passes out of the chamber.

“I think we’re in a pretty good position that we’ll be able to come out with something that we’ve put together, kind of similar along the same idea that we've been working on to make sure there's some assurance to protect the caucuses here in the state of Iowa,” he said.