Bills rise and fall as Legislature races to beat Friday’s “funnel” deadline

DES MOINES – A growing list of legislative ideas began suffering early deaths Wednesday as committee leaders closed out their 2011 policy work by leaving bills behind.

Friday marks the Legislature's second self-imposed hurdle that most bills most clear to stay eligible for debate this session. The requirement is for measures not dealing with spending, taxation or specifically shepherded by legislative leaders to have won approval of the House or Senate and a committee of the other chamber to remain alive for consideration.

However, the Legislature is not likely to be in session Friday and lawmakers' attention is expected to be consumed Thursday with analyzing the reapportionment map slated to be released by the Legislative Services Agency at 8:15 a.m. The map represents the first shot at redrawing Iowa's congressional and legislative districts based on 2010 population data.

“I think we'll still function. I think the committees will still meet,” said Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, but he conceded there might be a time of “shock” for some legislators when they see how their districts would change should the first redistricting plan be adopted.

The Senate Education Committee met without taking up House-passed bills dealing with establishing home rule and dress code authority for schools, charter schools or home-schooling issues - meaning those proposals will not survive the funnel.

The committee did decide to take up a House bill dealing with college employees placed on paid administrative leave due to a criminal charge and conviction, but senators expanded it to cover all public employees at state and local levels.

Committee chairman Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said House File 493 was expanded because it “tends to demonize teachers and I don't think they should be treated as a special class.”

Under the Senate approach, all public employees – not just teachers and university professors - placed on paid administrative leave because of a felony criminal charge would have to repay their salary upon conviction. Quirmbach said the Senate approach would include the governor's staff, legislative staff and state department directors.

“The message is, if you're a public employee, don't misbehave because we're increasing the downside risk,” he said.

A Senate Education subcommittee decided not to take up a state Department of Education proposal to change from a system based upon a school year measured by 180 days to one measured by 1,080 hours of instruction time.

“There's interest in the idea but we're not ready to move forward with it at this time,” Quirmbach said. “It remains a live round for next year if that's the route we go.”

Meanwhile, the Senate Agriculture Committee gave its stamp of approval to a House bill that would set new penalties for videotaping Iowa livestock operations without permission, but Sen. Tom Rielly, D-Oskaloosa, said there likely were constitutional problems with House File 589 that would have to be addressed by Senate amendments. The bill proposes stiff criminal penalties for people who fraudulently gain employment at an agricultural operation and secretly videotape alleged violations that backers contend are sometimes staged and later used for fundraising purposes.

The Senate State Government Committee amended and approved by voice vote a House-passed measure designed to limit the governor's authority to transfer appropriated funds after lawmakers have approved a budget plan and adjourned.

House File 148, which survived the funnel, struck a requirement that the state Revenue Estimating Conference meet quarterly and instead set REC meetings in December, March and the fall after the close of each fiscal year. The measure also would limit the governor's ability to transfer funds to $15 million overall and up to $3 million per line item while giving the Legislative Council veto power over any gubernatorial veto via a simple majority vote.

After the meeting, Sen. Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, who managed the bill, and committee chairman Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Waterloo, said they could not cite another example where the Legislature has asserted that lawmakers have veto power over action the governor might take. However, Danielson said he believed the provision would pass constitutional muster as part of the checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches.

“We have the power of the purse and we're not giving that up,” Danielson said, noting that Democrats who hold a 26-24 majority in the Senate have not agreed to adopt a two-year budgeting process that Branstad wants and House GOP majority members support. “What you saw today was a clear statement by the Legislature that once we pass a budget, we want to restrict the governor's ability to move things around once we adjourn and go home,” he said.

It was déjà vu all over again Wednesday for supporters of legislation to put more teeth in Iowa's three-decades-old state laws providing public access to documents and meetings.

The House State Government Committee votes 21-1 March 30 to send Senate File 430 to the full House, but with a caveat that the bill isn't ready to be passed.

“It's not ready to roll,” SF 430 subcommittee chairman Rep. Kevin Koester, R-Ankeny, said, “but if we don't move it, it's dead.”

The bill, approved 49-0 by th4e Senate, would create a seven-member Iowa Public Information Board to provide an alternative for complaint proceedings involving the state's open meeting and open records laws.

The House approved legislation Wednesday that requires a medical OK before high school athletes who have suffered a concussion can return to action.

“During the 2008-2009 school year 400,000 brain injury concussions occurred in high school athletics,” said Rep. Mark Lofgren, R-Muscatine, the bill's floor manager. “There are three times as many catastrophic injuries among high school athletes than there are of college athletes.”

The legislation was the focus of a news conference earlier this session which brought out officials from the National Football League and former Iowa State University and Minnesota Vikings linebacker Matt Blair to support it. It passed the House unanimously.

By an 89-9 margin, House members voted to bring consistency to cities' use of automated traffic enforcement devices – red light and speed cameras.

“We tried to bring, No. 1, some consistency across the state in the use of these cameras,” said floor manager Rep. Ralph Watts, R-Dallas Center. There were concerns that the penalties varied greatly among the five cities using the cameras and would increase as more cities use them to enforce traffic laws and raise revenue.

Some legislators wanted to ban them, Watts said.

Rep. Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls, withdrew an amendment to do that.

“This is not the right time,” he said. Later in the session may be the right time, Rogers said earlier in the week.

HF 549, according to Watts, “keeps intact the safety element” of traffic camera use … and puts some consistency in the revenue component.”

Under the measure, the maximum fine for a red light violation would be $50, roughly half of what most cities charge. The fine for speeders wouldn't change.

Cities couldn't charge court costs for either type of violation under the measure and tickets issued by using cameras don't count against a driving record.

Backers of the restrictions say the cameras are intended to enhance traffic safety and that cities shouldn't use them as a new source of revenue.

Rielly said the Senate Transportation Committee would take up the House measure Thursday to keep it eligible this session.

Also Wednesday, the Senate voted to reject legislation by key backer said was designed to give tenants in mobile and manufactured home parks the same rights as other tenants in Iowa.

Senate File 252, which failed on a 23-25 vote, sought to increase the rent default period for owners of manufactured homes from three days to one month - as other homeowners currently have, said Sen. Tom Courtney, D-Burlington, the bill's floor manager. It also would have given mobile homeowners the same rights as apartment renters, would have increased enforcement so “bad actors” couldn't prey on working-class Iowans, and as originally drafted would have required good cause for eviction so homeowners weren't removed for no legitimate reason, he said.

“I was surprised by the vote,” said Courtney. “People who voted against this have this type of trailer park in their districts. I know it. To vote against this, it's turning your back on people who are almost homeless. It's not the poorest of the poor, but they're very close. This doesn't hurt good mobile home owners. The protections were there so good operators were not affected by all by this.

“I guess what this says is maybe some of the good operators aren't as good as I thought. Maybe they're saying they'd like to have the freedom to mess around with their tenants. They're not showing that, but maybe that's why they oppose this. I'm quite shocked,” Courtney added. “Whether it would pass the House or the governor would sign it – I don't know, but I thought it would pass this chamber.”

(James Lynch contributed to this story)

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