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Capitol Notebook: Iowa House advances bills targeting transgender protections
Also, GOP lawmakers advance statewide school dress code bill
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Two Republican-backed bills touching on transgender civil rights and parental authority this week cleared the Iowa House Judiciary Committee, positioning them for possible debate by the full House ahead of next week’s first legislative “funnel” deadline.
Both measures — House Study Bill 664 and House Study Bill 669 — advanced on 14-7 party-line votes, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. Their passage followed protests earlier in the week from transgender Iowans, families, faith leaders and LGBTQ+ advocates, who warned the proposals would invite discrimination and legitimize harmful practices.
HSB 664, backed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, would prohibit the state’s cities and counties from adopting civil rights protections broader than those included in the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Supporters say the bill responds to local ordinances adopted after lawmakers last year removed gender identity from state civil rights protections — a rollback that prompted some cities, including Iowa City and Coralville, to reaffirm local safeguards for transgender and nonbinary residents.
Critics argue the bill would invalidate those local protections and weaken municipal authority to address discrimination. Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, a former Iowa City mayor, said cities need flexibility to monitor housing, credit and employment practices affecting vulnerable populations. “This particular issue, it’s important for cities to have the ability to determine what is safe, what they want to monitor,” Wilburn said.
Republicans framed the proposal as a matter of statewide consistency. House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said the legislation is intended to prevent a confusing “patchwork” of local standards. He and other GOP lawmakers argued uniform civil rights rules give clearer guidance to schools and businesses and reflect recent state laws tying certain policies to biological sex.
HSB 669 would shield parents, foster caregivers and adoptive families from child abuse or endangerment investigations solely for raising children consistent with their biological sex — including declining gender-transition-related care — and would bar those decisions from being used against families in custody or licensing determinations.
Supporters, including faith-based foster parents, told lawmakers the bill protects families from being penalized for religious or philosophical beliefs. Rep. Jon Dunwell, R-Newton, said the measure does not authorize conversion therapy and instead prevents ideological disqualifications that are currently diminishing the pool of prospective foster parents by "preventing the state from treating biological realism as child abuse."
"Protecting biological reality is not bigotry," Dunwell said. "It’s a commonsense child protection."
He characterized concerns about conversion therapy as a misreading of the bill, saying placement decisions would still be handled case by case.
Opponents countered that the language effectively shields practices resembling conversion therapy — efforts to change or suppress a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity — which major medical organizations condemn as harmful. The American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association have linked such practices to increased risks of depression, anxiety and suicide.
Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, D-Hiawatha, Iowa’s first openly transgender lawmaker, warned the proposal could expose LGBTQ+ youth to unsafe environments. She said current law already does not require parents to affirm a child’s gender identity, arguing the bill goes further by insulating conduct she believes could enable abuse. Wichtendahl cited higher homelessness rates among LGBTQ+ youth and said the legislation could make it harder to detect mistreatment, describing conversion therapy as “roundly discredited” and harmful.
LGBTQ+ advocates echoed those concerns, calling the bill dangerous and citing survivor accounts of humiliation and psychological trauma. Supporters rejected the characterization, saying the intent is to protect parental decision-making and expand the pool of foster families.
Iowa House lawmakers advance school dress code bill
A bill requiring Iowa public, charter and innovation schools to adopt a uniform statewide dress code advanced Wednesday out of the House Education Committee, clearing a key legislative “funnel” deadline and becoming eligible for debate by the full Iowa House.
House Study Bill 681 would require districts to implement dress code policies for students in kindergarten through 12th grade that meet minimum state standards. Those standards call for clothing to be clean and in good repair, prohibit attire promoting illegal activity or exposing undergarments or midriffs, require footwear and allow districts to restrict gang-related or disruptive clothing. The policies would apply during the school day, at extracurricular activities and school-sponsored events, with required religious and medical accommodations.
Democrats on the committee argued the proposal could disproportionately affect low-income students and penalize students for being in a household that lacks access to clean clothes and laundry facilities. Democratic Reps. Angel Ramirez and Rep. Tracy Ehlert, both of whom are from Cedar Rapids and work in schools with low-income children, said they have regular interactions with students who are homeless or have parents who cannot provide access to clean clothes.
“I know these parents would love to have their kids in some nice, clean clothes,” Ehlert said. “It’s just not an option for our families, and I feel like this is shaming them for not having the financial means to do better — because if they could, they would.”
Republicans said the measure is intended to promote student pride and respect, not punishment. Rep. Wendy Larson, R-Odebolt, said schools could partner with churches and community groups to help families obtain appropriate clothing, describing the bill as encouraging students to “put their best foot forward.”
Ramirez countered that schools and local organizations already work to fill those needs, arguing the bill emphasizes consequences rather than empathy.
The committee approved the bill on a 14—9 vote. It now moves to the full House for possible consideration later this session.
Iowa launches health care incentives for rural workforce shortages
Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Departments of Education and Health and Human Services announced Friday the opening of applications for a new Health Care Professional Incentive Program aimed at recruiting and retaining medical providers in high-need communities.
Backed by nearly $8 million in first-year state funding, the program offers financial incentives to licensed professionals who agree to work in designated high-demand health care roles in underserved Iowa counties. Created under a 2025 law proposed and signed by Reynolds, the initiative is designed to strengthen the state’s rural health care pipeline, where officials say workforce shortages threaten access to care. Applications are due March 31.
Eligible occupations include physicians, physician assistants, advanced registered nurse practitioners, registered nurses, nurse educators, occupational and physical therapists, licensed professional counselors and certain social workers providing mental health counseling. Participants must commit to practicing in one of 36 identified counties, many of them rural, for up to five consecutive years for full-time employment and seven consecutive years for part-time employment.
Award recipients can choose to receive payments as income bonuses or toward federal student loan repayment. Full-time participants would receive a portion of the maximum award annually, with the largest payment issued after completing a five-year service commitment. Part-time participants would receive prorated payments over a seven-year period.
State leaders said the program consolidates five prior workforce incentive efforts into a single structure intended to streamline recruitment and better target areas with the greatest need. Officials say the investment is meant to improve long-term access to care while easing financial pressures for professionals entering high-demand fields.
Program details, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available through the Iowa Department of Education at educate.iowa.gov.
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