Capitol Notebook: Unanimous support for hands-free bill in key legislative committee

DES MOINES — Committees in both the Iowa House and Senate this week unanimously advanced legislation that would ban motorists' handheld use of cellphones behind the wheel.

Senate File 22 and House Study Bill 64 are now eligible for debate and passage by each chamber.

Law enforcement officials, advocates and grieving families of Iowans killed by drivers distracted while using their cellphone have packed committee rooms in recent weeks to implore lawmakers to advance legislation that would make it illegal to use a phone or mobile device while driving unless it's voice-activated or hands-free.

  Buy Photo

The bills also would increase the scheduled fine for this violation from $45 to $100 and would make it a moving violation that can be considered for purposes of administrative suspension of a driver’s license or to establish habitual offender status.

If serious injury or death occurs, the fine is $500 and $1,000, respectively, and the driver’s license could be suspended.

The bill provides exceptions for first responders while on duty and health care professionals in the course of emergency situations. It also provides exceptions for receiving a weather or emergency alert, reporting an emergency situation, for those operating farm machinery and for certain radio operators and transit drivers.

Supporters, including bicyclists, motorcyclist, insurance companies, automakers, law enforcement and others, emphasized the bill's potential to save lives.

State and local law enforcement officials say the state’s prohibition on texting while driving, enacted in 2017, is nearly impossible to enforce because drivers can say they instead were making a call or using the device’s GPS, which still is allowed under current state law.

No group has registered in opposition to the legislation.

“If the officer sees that you have your phone in your hand, that will be enough to pull you over,” Rep. Ann Meyer, R-Fort Dodge, floor manager of the bill in the House, told The Gazette. “If your phone is mounted and you see the red dot come on, you can make that touch. You just cannot be holding it in your hand. It can be mounted and you can do the one touch.”

Rep. David Young, R-Van Meter, chair of the House Transportation Committee, added: “When you transfer something to your hands and your attention is on that, you have a paradigm shift in your cognitive ability to do these two things at once — driving a machine and then operating another one at the same time.”

Young said there still are a few House Republicans undecided on the bill, but said he likes “the momentum where we're at right now.”

Parents ask AG Bird to drop out of Texas lawsuit targeting Section 504

  Buy Photo

Parents of children with disabilities and teachers delivered letters to Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird Tuesday morning, calling on her to not participate in a Texas lawsuit aiming to repeal parts of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Section 504 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.

A lawsuit led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed last September aims to sue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over an amendment to section 504 approved by the Biden administration which said gender dysphoria may be considered a disability and can receive protections if certain conditions are met.

Gender dysphoria is “a feeling of distress that can happen when a person's gender identity differs from the sex assigned at birth” according to the Mayo Clinic.

Sixteen other Republican-led states, including Iowa, signed onto the lawsuit.

Parents and teachers delivering letters said the lawsuit would fully repeal Section 504 and students would fall behind without accommodations provided through 504 plans.

“In my 30-year career, I had a number of students with 504s,” retired teacher Robin Vanderhoef said. “We were able to accommodate. It didn’t disrupt the class. They were able to participate and engage at often excellent or high levels. It was important to have that, and it meant they had community.”

Bird has denied that the lawsuit would strip away Section 504 and argues it would only target the gender dysphoria protections.

“The Iowans who were fed lies to show up at our office today in freezing temperatures deserve the truth,” Alyssa Brouillet, the communications director for Bird, said. “And the truth is that no one’s 504 plan is being changed or removed. Attorney General Bird is glad to protect 504 as it was originally intended by stopping the Biden-Harris Administration’s illegal attempts to distort school accommodations and sexualize kids.”

The lawsuit argues Section 504 is unconstitutional and the court should order an injunction on its enforcement because it interferes with a state’s discretion in providing disability services.

Amber Gustafson of Ankeny, the organizer of the letter drop-off, said there are more than 10,000 children in Iowa who have 504 plans.

“I’m confused when she says that this doesn’t have anything to do with attacking 504, because that means that either she’s not read something that she has signed on to or she’s lying,” Gustafson said.

Legal analysts with the Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund say if the lawsuit is successful and the court rules that Section 504 is unconstitutional, it could imperil the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 since there are provisions that link the two.

House advances Reynolds’ ban on cellphones in class

  Buy Photo

All Iowa K-12 public school students would be prohibited from having cellphones on them during instructional time under a proposal from Gov. Kim Reynolds that advanced in the House on Wednesday.

A three-member subcommittee panel gave its unanimous blessing to House Study Bill 106. An identical bill has been introduced and is moving in the Senate.

During public testimony in the House subcommittee, lobbyists for education groups said they are generally supportive of the bill’s concept of barring phones in classrooms during instruction time. However, many expressed concerns about some of the timelines for the bill’s implementation, and asked if the bill could be tweaked to help schools comply with the proposal’s requirements.

The House proposal is now eligible for consideration by the full House Education Committee.

House shelves ‘Gulf of America’ bill

The Iowa House Education Committee shelved bills Wednesday dealing with the newly named Gulf of America and students’ preferred names and pronouns.

House Study Bill 97 would have required some classroom materials to refer to the Gulf of America instead of the Gulf of Mexico. President Donald Trump last month signed an executive order requiring the federal government to recognize the Gulf of Mexico as instead the Gulf of America. All other countries still recognize the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico.

Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, chairman of the committee, said he shelved the Gulf of America bill because the name already has been accepted by entities like Google Maps and Apple Maps, calling that “a win.”

  Buy Photo

House File 80 would have prohibited school districts from disciplining staff or students who decline to use a student’s preferred name or pronouns. The bill was on the committee’s meeting agenda, but was not called up for discussion. Wheeler said Republicans are still having discussions about the bill.

The committee approved legislation that would require the teaching of pregnancy and fetal development, including the use of a video, in high school classes. House Study Bill 34 is now eligible for debate by the full Iowa House.

The committee also advanced legislation, House File 120, that would allow high schools to apply to the state for a year-round schedule. Current law limits such allowances to pre-K through 8th grade schools.

Iowa AG’s proposed constitutional amendment passes, but with questions

Children and some other Iowans would have the option to testify against their alleged abusers remotely under a proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution that was put forward by Attorney General Brenna Bird and considered Wednesday by state lawmakers.

For years in Iowa, children in certain court cases were allowed to testify from a remote location, in front of a judge. But the Iowa Supreme Court last year, in State of Iowa v. Derek Michael White, ruled that the constitutional right for an individual to face his or her accuser in court is violated when a child gives witness testimony from outside the courtroom.

As a result, Iowa is now the only state in the country that does not permit any form of remote testimony from children, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office says. Bird has proposed amending the Iowa Constitution to allow state law to provide for exceptions when children can testify remotely.

Bird’s proposal would clarify in the Iowa Constitution that in some cases children and some other individuals can testify remotely without violating their accuser’s constitutional rights. The proposal, Senate Study Bill 1057, was considered and advanced Wednesday by a Senate subcommittee, although not without logistical questions like whether state law also would need to be amended. The proposal is now eligible for consideration by the full Senate Judiciary Committee.

An identical proposal was introduced and considered by a subcommittee in the House.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau

Get the latest Iowa politics and government coverage each morning in the On Iowa Politics newsletter.