Iowa House has the signatures to override Gov. Reynolds’ eminent domain veto

DES MOINES — Seventy legislators in the Iowa House signed a petition to override Gov. Kim Reynolds’ veto of eminent domain and property rights legislation, the House Speaker’s Office announced Tuesday.

But a special session of the Iowa Legislature remains unlikely given the lack of interest from Republican leaders in the Iowa Senate.

Immediately after Reynolds last week vetoed House File 639 — legislation designed to limit the use of eminent domain for hazardous liquid pipelines and other energy infrastructure projects — House Speaker Pat Grassley last week announced his intention to distribute a petition calling for a special session of the Iowa Legislature to override Reynolds’ veto.

Per the Iowa Constitution, a special legislative session of the Legislature can be called only by the governor or by a petition signed by two-thirds of the members in each of the Iowa House and Senate.

The 70 signatures collected in the House satisfies the constitutional requirement for that chamber.

“This veto was a major setback for Iowa landowners and the tireless efforts of the House to safeguard property rights,” House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, said in a statement. “With 70 members of the House standing united, we’ve met the constitutional threshold to move forward.

“We now call on our colleagues in the Senate to join us by securing the necessary signatures so we can convene a special session, override this veto, and deliver the protections Iowa landowners deserve against eminent domain for private gain.”

Senate Republican leadership has been uninterested in any effort to override Reynolds’ veto. When the bill passed the Senate, 21 Republicans — including most of the caucus’ leadership — voted against it.

  Buy Photo

A spokesman for Senate Republicans pointed to the statement Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, a Republican from Grimes, issued last week when Reynolds’ veto and Grassley’s call for a special session were announced.

“Based on the votes on that bill in the Iowa Senate, a significant majority of our caucus supports a better policy to protect landowner rights,” Whitver said in that statement. “I expect that majority of our caucus would not be interested in any attempt to override her veto.”

The 70 House members who signed the petition calling for a special session to override the governor’s veto includes 57 of the chamber’s 67 Republicans — including Speaker Grassley and Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, of Missouri Valley — and 13 of the 33 Democrats.

Proposed pipeline at center of the debate

The debate over eminent domain, property rights and carbon capture pipelines has been a heated one at the Iowa Capitol and has divided statehouse Republicans for four years.

Summit Carbon Solutions has proposed a 2,500-mile CO2 pipeline through five states, including Iowa, to capture the greenhouse gas from ethanol plants and bury it in North Dakota. State regulators approved a permit for the Iowa section, including granting Summit eminent domain powers.

Summit, in June 2024, said 75 percent of Iowa landowners on the project’s proposed route had signed voluntary easements, and that the company was working to increase that number.

Supporters of the proposed bill said it would have protected Iowans’ private property rights against proposed pipeline projects from private companies. “No eminent domain for private gain” became a common rallying call of the bill’s supporters.

  Buy Photo

Opponents of the bill asserted that they also support Iowans’ private property rights, but expressed concern that the legislation will hamper economic growth by stifling all types of infrastructure projects — not just pipelines — and alleged the true goal of the bill was to kill a current proposed CO2 pipeline project in Iowa.

In a statement issued alongside her veto, Reynolds said she respects both sides of the debate but argued that the bill goes too far.

“(The bill) isn’t just about eminent domain. It goes much further — and in doing so sets a troubling precedent that threatens Iowa’s energy reliability, economy and reputation as a place where businesses can invest with confidence,” Reynolds said in the statement.

House File 639 would have, among other provisions:

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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