Articles Tagged: Iowa Legislature

Children would need permission from a parent or guardian to possess an online social media account under a bill that received bipartisan support Tuesday from an Iowa House committee.

After an hour updating lawmakers on ways their campuses are serving students, the presidents of Iowa’s three public universities fielded questions from lawmakers -- including about cuts to their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

As Republican lawmakers advanced a bill that would repeal civil rights protections for transgender Iowans, demonstrators gathered Monday outside of a committee room and spilled into the Iowa Capitol rotunda in a raucous protest that led to two arrests

Also, Iowa Senate Republicans advanced legislation that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion positions and programs in local government

While hundreds of protesters chanted and yelled in the Iowa Capitol Rotunda Monday morning, House Republicans advanced legislation that would remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act in an unprecedented move to repeal civil rights protections for transgender Iowans that have been in place for nearly two decades.

With lobbyists for Iowa’s public universities lingering in an “undecided” state on the dozens of bills introduced this session angling to reshape higher education, the Board of Regents this week will consider creating a new “legislative committee” tasked with taking a position on pending legislation.

Iowa prosecutors proposed a bill to make criminal groping a serious misdemeanor, which carries up to a year in jail -- but they had no idea it would face such pushback in the state House and Senate.

Should the bill pass and be signed into law, Iowa would become the first state in the nation to remove a protected class from a state’s civil rights act, a legal expert says.

Erin Merryn, who has worked to get similar laws passed in 38 states, testified this week at the Iowa Capitol during a legislative hearing on an Iowa bill

Some of the proposals by Democrats include capping rent increases, creating an affordable housing tax credit program and providing partial refunds for denied rental applications.

Also, state lawmakers are considering taxes on vape products

This week on the show, Gov. Kim Reynolds may have accidentally announced her re-election campaign, Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks is getting a primary rematch, and legislative proposals to ditch the outdoors and recreation trust fund and remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

Also in the Capitol Notebook: A bill criminalizing ‘smuggling’ of noncitizens advances in Iowa House.

State and local law enforcement officers in Iowa would have to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in apprehending and detaining individuals who are in the country illegally under a bill in the Iowa Legislature. Everyone who spoke at a subcommittee hearing Thursday was either opposed to the bill or undecided.

Gender identity was added to the Iowa Civil Rights Act in 2007; a bill introduced Thursday by a Republican state lawmaker would remove gender identity as a protected class