Uber regulations pass Iowa Senate

DES MOINES - A batch of statewide regulations for ride-hailing businesses such as Uber and Lyft gained unanimous approval Wednesday in the Iowa Senate.

The legislation, approved on a 50-0 vote, tweaks a proposal that started in the House. The Senate's amended version requires ride-hailing companies to perform background checks on their drivers and establishes guidelines for how businesses should operate.

The legislation also requires ride-hailing drivers to carry $1 million in insurance for death and injury, but it removes a provision that would have required drivers to carry comprehensive and collision insurance as well.

State banks and credit unions had requested the provision; Uber called it unworkable and threatened to cease operations in the state if it were adopted.

Instead, the Senate-passed bill requires ride-hailing drivers using cars with liens to notify the lienholder.

'It is complicated. There are a lot of special interests, different folks with different perspectives wanting to have their influence on this bill,” said Sen. Tod Bowman, D-Maquoketa, who shepherded the bill and chairs the Senate transportation committee. 'This is a comprehensive bill that provides statewide consistency for a new type of business while providing safe transportation and job opportunities for Iowans.”

Uber operates in the Quad Cities, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Ames and has served more than 100,000 Iowans since beginning operations in the state, according to a company official.

'The Senate's unanimous and bipartisan endorsement of a statewide ridesharing framework would create certainty for businesses like Uber in Iowa,” Michael White, the company's general manager in Iowa, said in an emailed statement. 'We know there is strong demand for additional transportation options for riders and flexible earning opportunities for drivers across the state, and this bill would allow for expansion in the Hawkeye State to meet that demand.”

The amended bill moves back to the House, where it must be approved before being sent to the governor.

Renewable fuels tax credits

The Senate unanimously extended until 2025 tax credits for biodiesel fuels and ethanol-blended gasoline. The credits were set to expire in 2018.

The bill also provides stronger incentives for biofuel companies to produce fuels with higher blend levels.

'We're trying to move the needle on biodiesel, and we're trying to extend this tax credit for seven years,” said Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, who also is running for U.S. Senate. 'This is important to do because Iowa's biofuels industry is important, and we need to provide the industry with the certainty it needs so the industry can invest, so the industry can innovate, so the industry can improve and so the industry can continue to grow.”

Hogg and Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, said the state incentives were especially important given the uncertainty surrounding federal assistance for biofuels.

Early reading proficiency

Senators voted 42-7 to approve changes in how students under-performing in reading proficiency are evaluated before they are required to repeat third grade. House File 2413 now goes to Gov. Terry Branstad.

The bill calls for students from kindergarten to third grade struggling with reading to receive 'intensive reading instruction,” including periodic universal screening and annual assessments before a child would be in line for summer remediation and the possibility of being retained in third grade.

Under the reading proficiency elements, beginning next spring, parents, teachers and others will meet to determine a plan to aid any student deemed 'persistently at risk in reading” - a change from 'substantially deficient” - at the end of third grade. That likely would include an intensive summer school program, but it is unclear whether there will be state funding to implement a summer reading program or whether the requirement will be delayed at least one year.

During Wednesday's Senate debate, several senators opposed the bill because they opposed third-grade retention, even though Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, the bill's floor manager, said the intent was to make corrections and marshal resources to help students deal with issues separate from retention.

'It does deal with the retention issue,” said Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan. 'I think we're not prepared either in policy or especially in funding for this to move ahead.”

Sen. Rita Hart, D-Wheatland, noted the legislation contained exemptions for good cause and provisions that 'would soften and improve” current code language. But she added, 'I simply cannot support any policy that sanctions, approves, supports, winks at or ignores any effort by this body to create state-ordered retention.”

Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, got choked up during a floor speech talking about struggles that 'tore me up” as a child dealing with dyslexia in opposing the bill's provisions as 'the wrong path” to helping children with learning disabilities, but Sen. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa, said he viewed the bill as 'improving a bad situation” that could be made worse by advancing a child who was not progressing at grade level.