Week in Iowa

Key bills pass legislative 'funnel' deadline: Iowa lawmakers worked late into the evening last week to move legislation ahead of the first legislative "funnel" deadline. Friday marked the last day for most bills to pass out of committees and remain eligible for consideration for the rest of the session.

Majority Republicans advanced bills regulating the state's area education agencies, changing election procedures, addressing traffic safety and cracking down on unlawful immigration. Democrats roundly criticized Republicans' priorities this session, calling their agenda an “attack on Iowans” and charging they are not addressing real needs.

Bill would limit Trump ballot challenges: Iowa GOP lawmakers advanced a bill last week to change Iowa's elections, including preventing eligibility challenges to Donald Trump's place on the ballot on constitutional grounds. The bill would limit eligibility challenges for federal candidates to the legal sufficiency of the petition, and residency, age and citizenship requirements in the U.S. Constitution.

Proposal would allow agencies to bypass state audits: Iowa Republicans advanced a bill that would allow state and local agencies to hire private accounting firms to audit their finances and bypass the elected state auditor. State Auditor Rob Sand is the only statewide elected Democrat in Iowa, and his office called the bill a “recipe for corruption.” Republicans said it would provide flexibility while maintaining accountability.

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark breaks scoring record: University of Iowa point guard Caitlin Clark became the highest scoring player in NCAA women's basketball history on Thursday, sinking three consecutive shots to sail past the previous record of 3,527 points. The Hawkeye star overtook Kelsey Plum, who set the record in 2017.

Clark set the record with a 33-foot, three-pointer from the logo barely two minutes into the game in which she scored a career-high 49 points. The effort brought Clark's career total to 3,569 points.

The sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd broke into chants of one more year“ during the game. Clark is eligible for a fifth season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bill increases nursing home oversight: A bill advancing in the Legislature would require state officials to conduct training twice a year with nursing homes and inspectors to cover some of the most frequent complaints lodged in the previous year. Nursing homes have been under scrutiny in recent years as reports of deaths, abuse and neglect have increased.

House GOP proposes AEA bill: Iowa House Republicans are considering a rival proposal to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' bill to overhaul the state area education agencies that provide special education support and other services to Iowa school districts. The House bill would allow schools to keep their state special education funding but, unlike Reynolds’ bill, would require them to spend that money with the AEA rather than another party.

They said …

“If I could summarize it in one sentence, it would be that the bills that came out of committee in the last few days is really an attack on Iowans rather than an attack on the problems that Iowans have asked us to solve.” — Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque

“We wanted to provide certainty for special education. We took Iowans’ feedback that we've been having in our meetings and realized how important that was. And we feel our plan provides that certainty in the future when it comes to special education.” — Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford

Odds and ends

Pesticide protections: Pesticide manufacturers would have legal immunity from lawsuits over health risks if their products have a federally approved warning label under a bill Republican lawmakers advanced this week. The bill was proposed by Bayer, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures Roundup.

Traffic cameras: A bill tying together a ban on cellphone use while driving with a ban on traffic cameras is under consideration in the Iowa Legislature. Proposals for both measures have been around for years but have failed to gather enough support. Law enforcement officials implored lawmakers last week to separate the distracted driving ban and pass it as a stand-alone bill. They said traffic cameras help reduce accidents and uphold traffic laws.

Water cooler

Police chief convicted: The Adair police chief was convicted by a federal jury this week of lying to authorities to acquire machine guns that he then sold for a profit. Authorities say Brad Wendt lied to obtain the machine guns for his police department and sold them for an $80,000 personal profit.

Birth control: Iowa lawmakers are again considering a bill to allow women to buy birth control without a prescription. The patient would need to follow up with a doctor after two years to continue receiving the medication.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau