Articles Tagged: Iowa Legislature

Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat seeking re-election, joins many Republicans and ethanol industry leaders in calling for the Biden administration to utilize E15 to ease gas price pressures on consumers.

A bill waiting for Gov. Kim Reynolds to sign into law would strip local city councils of regulating the sale of fireworks, frustrating efforts of cities like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to crack down on the consumer explosives in response to citizen complaints and a rise in injuries.

On one side are investors who want to deliver CO2 from Iowa ethanol plants to sequestration sites in other states. In an unusual pairing, they’ve been joined by some labor unions. On the other side, are “unusual bedfellows” — environmentalists, farmers, landowners and property rights advocates as well as opponents of large-scale farming and ethanol — calling for the Iowa Utilities Board to reject eminent domain for pipeline construction.

On this week’s edition of the On Iowa Politics Podcast: historic week in the Legislature, ballot challenges, and Trump “more likely than not” committed obstruction.

There appears to be some significant ground to cover before the Republican-led Iowa House and Senate reach an agreement on those issues.

Previously, the House passed its own version, which differs in many key ways

Capitol Notebook: Rep. Cecil Dolecheck and Sen. Janet Petersen have received the 2022 Hoover Uncommon Public Service Award.

Iowa Senate Republicans say their plan would breathe new life into the state recycling program, while Senate Democrats say the plan would strangle the program to death.

More than 100 people attended a Sierra Club sponsored public hearing Tuesday in the Capitol rotunda on the use of eminent domain for pipeline construction.

Higher than projected gambling revenue will make it possible for the Legislature to bump up the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund (RIIF) by $87 million in the coming year to nearly $290 million in fiscal 2023.

Fewer international students have been enrolling in Iowa’s public universities for years – even before COVID-19 locked down travel and crippled the campus’ global reach – and lawmakers on Monday probed the Board of Regents for an answer to why.

Concerned by what they see as a lack of action by lawmakers, landowners and others who oppose the use of eminent domain to construct pipelines across Iowa will have a public hearing at the Statehouse on Tuesday.

Jessica Wiskus, who has also been organizing against the Navigator CO2 Ventures carbon pipeline after learning her property was in the corridor, is running as a Democratic in Senate 42. The district covers rural Linn County, wrapping around the Cedar Rapids metro area, and eastern Benton County.

On this week’s edition of the On Iowa Politics Podcast: who’s running for public office this year, Chuck Grassley and another Supreme Court nomination, and the legislative session begins to wind down.

“Service has been central to my life,” said Colman Silbernagel, one of three candidates in the June 7 primary for the Republican nomination. He looks forward to representing the district “to defend life, protect our Second Amendment rights and fight for family-supporting jobs.”