Iowa Legislature still aiming for adjournment this week

DES MOINES - It will take time to iron out the differences between Iowa lawmakers of both parties and both chambers of the Legislature. But legislators remain optimistic they'll finish their work this week.

'That's my hope, absolutely” to be done this week, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said Tuesday as House-Senate conference committees worked on reaching agreements on budget bills.

Among them is the $3.4 billion standings bill that includes school aid as well as a laundry list of funding provisions. Rep. Ken Rizer, R-Cedar Rapids, said the policy issues in the bill had been pared from about 100 last year to about 30. The Senate had added nine items, he said, and the House added a few.

'So I guess there's room for horse-trading,” he said after the House approved House File 2459, 51-39, on its way to a conference committee.

A conference committee on the $1.9 billion health and human services budget met in a public session for a minute. But Sen. Amanda Ragan, D-Mason City, said she expected conferees to meet privately to discuss significant differences.

'We've casually had conversations all along this year. So there are issues we will find agreement on fast and others that we just have to see how we can resolve everything,” Ragan said. 'Nobody's going home until this budget is resolved.”

Sooner rather than later is the preference of most lawmakers. Their daily expense money ended April 19, and the Statehouse cafeteria closed Friday.

If the session doesn't end this week, many will be further inconvenienced because leases on their Des Moines housing will expire at the end of the month.

'I think the members of the conference committees know the speaker's and the majority leader's druthers,” Gronstal said.

The Senate has been operating with a skeleton crew so far this week, but Gronstal said he expected to have all senators on hand Wednesday to begin the shutdown process that could take a day or two.

'We'll measure that as it happens,” he said.

He said that once agreements are made, 'the tough part is transferring those agreements to paper and going through all the due diligence.”

'Moving the paper takes some significant time,” the veteran of 33 years in the House and Senate said.

The major sticking points in the health and human services budget are Senate Democrats' insistence on more extensive oversight of privately delivered Medicaid services, which began April 1, and House Republicans' insistence on not funding Planned Parenthood.

Ragan predicted it will take time to go through the oversight details because private management of Medicaid is new.

'There's such detail. In the weeds,” she said.

Resolving the differences on funding family planning services also will take time because the Senate wants Planned Parenthood funding in Medicaid, but the House funds women's health services from a different source.

'There's lots of positives in this bill that we agree on,” Ragan said. 'The art of compromise is somewhere in here.”