Iowa Politics Today: Bill allowing some 911 calls to be kept secret stalls

A roundup of legislative and Capitol news for Tuesday:

ELECTION INTEGRITY:

The Iowa House spent more than five hours Monday night debating a Republican-sponsored 'election integrity” bill it had passed earlier in the session.

Democrats' labeled House File 516 a 'voter suppression” bill they said would raise costs to county taxpayers. The House voted, 56-40, to amend the Senate version and send the measure back to that chamber for concurrence. The Senate earlier voted, 26-21, to amend the House's original bill.

Proposed Democratic amendments were defeated largely along party lines in debate that lasted to 11:30 p.m.

HF 516 would require all voters at the polls to provide proof of eligibility as well as all absentee ballot requests to contain a personal voter identification number.

TAYLOR APPOINTMENT:

Rep. Todd Taylor, D-Cedar Rapids, has been appointed to the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy Council by House Democratic Leader Mark Smith of Marshalltown. The council helps the academy set standards and provide cost-effective law enforcement training.

The council coordinates training and sets standards for the law enforcement service. It also establishes minimum standards for the training of jailers.

911 BILL STALLS:

A House-passed bill that would have kept some 911 recordings secret appears to have stalled in the Iowa Senate.

Leaders of the GOP-led Senate have removed House File 571 from the Senate debate calendar and sent it back to the Senate State Government Committee, a procedure move that keeps it eligible for consideration next legislative session.

The proposal, approved 99-0 by the House last month, would have required law enforcement agencies to edit medical information out of 911 recordings or provide redacted transcripts when the public requests the recordings, now considered public records.

Opponents fear the measure could be more broadly applied to keep secret all 911 recordings, body camera videos and police logs.

The proposal would have exempted from Iowa's open records law medical records, including 'information contained in audio or video call recording, including but not limited to, an audio or video 911 recording, relating to the injury or medical condition of a person who is the subject of the call.”

All 911 recordings concerning juveniles also would be confidential under the proposal.

WEEKLY CROP REPORT:

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said wet weather kept farmers from the field for most of the week. However, he said drier weather and warmer conditions late in the week allowed some field work and fertilizer applications to take place.

'We will need some more warm and dry weather before we start see widespread fieldwork,” Northey said in his weekly crop report Monday.

Topsoil moisture levels are rated 1 percent very short, 3 percent short, 72 percent adequate and 24 percent surplus.

Subsoil moisture levels rated 1 percent very short, 5 percent short, 75 percent adequate and 19 percent surplus.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

'We all know one thing, in the state of Iowa you can commit a Class A felony in the name of economic development and get away with it,” Jewell City Councilman Rick Young speaking at a Capitol event calling for funding of the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund.