Iowa Legislature's 'funnel' claims bills on missing children, unpaid school volunteer leave

Judgment week in the Iowa Legislature left a number of hoped-for bills in ashes on Wednesday.

House subcommittees opened the day by pulling the plug on measures that would have created a crime for failing to report a missing child, mandated that employers grant up to 200 hours of unpaid leave for workers who wanted to volunteer for or attend school-related activities, and required a duty for Iowans present at the scene of an emergency or an accident who know another person has suffered a serious physical injury to provide assistance to that victim.

Those bills represented the tip of the iceberg of legislative ideas that will be unable to meet a test by Friday of winning the support of a standing committee in the House or Senate to remain eligible for debate before the 2012 session adjourns in April.

A measure supported by 13 House Republicans to create a new criminal offense for failing to report a missing child to a law enforcement agency in response to constituent outrage over the Casey Anthony case in Florida hit a legislative reality check. The Iowa Attorney General's Office called it unworkable, unconstitutional and already addressed by current statutes, and a representative of the Iowa County Attorneys Association told subcommittee members “it would be impossible to prosecute” the charge that backers envisioned.

Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, R-Wilton, said the Florida-based Casey Anthony case, where the 22-year-old woman was acquitted of murder charges after her 2-year-old daughter went missing in July 2008 and her remains were found five months later near the family home, prompted the most contacts to legislators of both political parties from people wanting to make sure a similar situation could not take place in Iowa.

Kaufmann said average Iowans want to make certain there is no loophole in Iowa law in missing child situations, but he noted that the legal experts who testified Wednesday convinced him “this isn't the bill” and that current laws generally cover most missing child cases where criminal activity was involved.

Under House File 2253, a parent of a child 12 years of age or younger who recklessly failed to make contact with or verify the whereabouts and safety of the child within a 24-hour period would be deemed to have committed a criminal offense. The penalty would be enhanced if the unreported missing was later found dead or died shortly after being found from injuries sustained while the child was missing.

“We have several concerns with this. We think current child endangerment, child abuse and child neglect statutes will cover it,” said Eric Tabor of the attorney general's office. “There's problems with this particular draft in terms of what is being prohibited. If you had kids at Grandma's and you didn't call every 24 hours to verify their whereabouts or safety -- that would be a serious crime. Unlike most criminal statutes, this does not have elements of knowingly or intentionally violating the law, which raises some constitutional due process concerns.”

Joe Kelly, a lobbyist for the Iowa County Attorneys Association, said the message he got from association members was “it would be impossible to prosecute this bill” and he noted there usually is a problem when prosecutors, public defenders, and social justice advocates are allied in opposition to an issue. Judicial experts agreed to further consult with legislators if there was a workable proposal that could be offered yet this as a leadership bill that would be exempt from the Legislature's Friday “funnel” deadline that winnows the list of eligible bills.

Another funnel casualty Wednesday was House File 2211, a Democrat-backed bill that mandated that an eligible employee would be entitled to 200 hours of unpaid school activity leave during any 12-month period to volunteer for or attend school-related activities. The eligible employee would have worked for at least a year and put in at least 1,250 hours of service during the previous 12-month period to request the unpaid leave from an employer, but the employee would not have to have a familial relationship with a student to get time off to coach or be involved in other school-related activities.

Rep. Nate Willems, D-Lisbon, said the policy would be beneficial for employees, employers, schools, communities and young people and would complement efforts to improve and reform Iowa's educational system.

While supportive of the concept, Reps. Lance Horbach, R-Tama, chairman of the House Labor Committee, and Greg Forristall, R-Macedonia, chairman of the House Education Committee, said they would not mandate the leave requirement on employers at this time. Representatives of business groups also spoke against the measure, which failed to pass out of subcommittee Wednesday.

Nearby, a separate House subcommittee declined to approve House Study Bill 636, which would have established a requirement for Iowans to provide reasonable assistance to victims of accidents or emergencies. Rep. Jarad Klein, R-Keota, said he was not endorsing the idea but was willing to advance the bill to the House Public Safety Committee to continue the discussion. However, the other two subcommittee members declined to sign off on the bill, which Klein said was “on hold” unless another representative approved it before the full committee held its last pre-funnel meeting on Thursday morning.

“We're definitely under a deadline,” Klein said. “We have until 10 a.m. to get another signature if we want to move it forward.”

Despite the setback in the House, the proposal did win 9-6 support in the Senate State Government Committee on Monday, which would preserve it for further work. Backers said the legislation stemmed from an August 2010 incident at an Urbandale motel in which Chad Nauman, 35, died after laying unconscious on a floor while at least eight people were aware of his circumstance but failed to provide assistance.