Iowa Legislature's 'funnel' deadline coming this week

Tracking the legislative process can be like watching a car driving down a dead-end road.

At the moment, the driver thinks everything is fine even though the trip soon will come to a halt.

So it is with many policy bills making their way through the split-control Legislature this year.

The prospects may look good for proposals in the House and Senate where one political party holds control heading into this Friday's “funnel” deadline for bills to clear a standing committee in one chamber to remain eligible for consideration this session.

However, the end of the line may be in the offing as bills that majority Republicans in the House send to the Senate and, likewise, majority-party senators send to the House face the true test of a bill's chances for survival that will come on March 18 – the second and crucial self-imposed deadline for legislation to pass through one chamber and a committee on the other side of the rotunda or die for the year.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said Friday's eligibility hurdle “is the first step in winding down the session.” The Legislature's “funnel” deadlines do not apply to bills dealing with appropriations or tax policy, those that are introduced as leadership bills and measures assigned to the Oversight Committee that has members from both the House and Senate.

“Funnel week is always interesting,” said House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer, R-Garner.

“We're going to focus on getting everything that the committee chairs want through their committees before the end of the funnel,” she said. That might mean hectic schedules and long work days this week given that last Thursday saw 47 subcommittee meetings in the House alone as the 2011 legislative session approaches the midpoint, she noted.

“Of course, somewhere along the way, people kind of look around and say, OK, I don't have the votes for that - it's going to have to wait until next year. So they put it aside or they have marathon meetings to try to get it through. The committee chairs will sort that out as they move forward,” Upmeyer said. “For some things it will be end of the line. Other things, they find a way to have a life. We'll see.”

Sponsors of measures that are claimed by the funnel sometimes attempt to resurrect the issues as amendments to bills that are still eligible for debate with varying degrees of success. In the case of legislation this year to address late-term abortions, House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, reassigned the bill last week from a House committee where the priority measure had stalled to the Oversight Committee, where House members of that panel will have more time to work on it without fear it will be sidelined by funnel-related constraints.

Paulsen said he has left open the possibility of committees meeting on Friday if need be with issues like Gov. Terry Branstad's bills to revamp the state economic development agency into a public-private partnership and to convert the state's universal preschool program to a system that provides need-based scholarship based on a families' ability to pay still awaiting committee approval.

“My expectations would be that once we get to the middle of the week, the overwhelming majority of the committee work will be done. There may be some stragglers,” he said.

On the Senate side, Gronstal said there will be little floor debate to ensure that standing committees have the time they need to deal with priority legislation.

The one funnel-exempt bill that will get some attention is Senate File 209, a measure designed to “couple” the Iowa tax code with federal tax law changes and provide $46 million in supplemental spending for state agencies yet this fiscal year.

House Republicans plan to amend provisions of the Senate bill to allow businesses to accelerate depreciation on equipment/machinery purposes on their 2010 tax returns while removing a separate section increasing the refundable earned income tax credit from 7 percent to 10 percent for households making under $45,000 a year – estimated to impact about 240,000 Iowans. The GOP version also seeks to revisit issues stripped from an earlier bill that went to Branstad's desk that would create a Tax Relief Fund to capture surplus state dollars, establish of a minimum health insurance premium of $100 for all state employees and make other changes.

“I find it unconscionable that Republicans in the House say we can afford tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations but we can't afford it for working Iowans,” said Gronstal, who pledged to “fight hard” in negotiations to reinstate the earned tax credit provision. “We are working hard to do the things we said we would do, put Iowans back to work, and Republicans in the House remain distracted by issues that divide Iowans.”

Paulsen said Republicans' primary focus is on creating jobs, bolstering the economy and reducing state spending.

What won't survive the 'funnel'

• Raising the speed limit to 60 mph on primary/secondary roads
• Banning speed/red-light traffic enforcement cameras
• Allowing mourning doves to be hunted in Iowa
• Forcing the University of Iowa to sell Jackson Pollock “Mural” painting
• Expanding high school athletic ineligibility rule from 90 to 180 days
• Allowing chronically ill patients access to medical marijuana
• Giving more protections to bicycle rides on highways
• Letting businesses, groups and others deny services/accommodations due to religious beliefs
• Imposing a moratorium on new state gaming licenses
• Allowing local control on livestock siting issues
• Barring use of tobacco on school grounds
• Requiring prevailing wage for public construction projects
• Authorizing “fair share” fees in public employees' collective bargaining
• Expanding income tax checkoff for qualified Iowa zoos
• Banning open burning of residential waste in/near cities

What won't survive the 'funnel'

A sampling of legislative issues not likely to advance this legislative session:

• Raising the speed limit to 60 mph on primary/secondary roads
• Banning speed/red-light traffic enforcement cameras
• Allowing mourning doves to be hunted in Iowa
• Forcing the University of Iowa to sell Jackson Pollock “Mural” painting
• Expanding high school athletic ineligibility rule from 90 to 180 days
• Allowing chronically ill patients access to medical marijuana
• Giving more protections to bicycle rides on highways
• Letting businesses, groups and others deny services/accommodations due to religious beliefs
• Imposing a moratorium on new state gaming licenses
• Allowing local control on livestock siting issues
• Barring use of tobacco on school grounds
• Requiring prevailing wage for public construction projects
• Authorizing “fair share” fees in public employees' collective bargaining
• Expanding income tax checkoff for qualified Iowa zoos
• Banning open burning of residential waste in/near cities