Capitol Ideas: Lawmakers’ expense money runs out after this Tuesday

DES MOINES - It may go undetected in sleepy legislative chambers where clerks, pages, doorkeepers and lawmakers wait patiently for some floor action. But adjournment fever is sweeping the Iowa Capitol building.

'I've got the fever, believe you me,” said Rep. Lee Hein, R-Monticello, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and one of the 25 legislators who directly farm or have ties to farming, as he looks out the Statehouse windows with the passing of each sunny day perfect for prepping for spring planting.

And that antsy feeling that the 2016 session should shut down soon gets amplified this week when daily expense money of $160 for out-of-towners and $120 for Polk County legislators stops at the close of business on Tuesday - the 100th calendar day since the second yearly session of the 86th Iowa General Assembly convened on Jan. 11.

Shutting off legislative per diem is intended to build pressure to wrap up work in a process that does not have a hard and fast adjournment deadline. The practice has had spotty results, however, with most sessions going over time - most notably the 2011 session that adjourned on June 30 as the third-longest yearly assemblage in Iowa history at 172 days.

The split-control Legislature is not likely to challenge any longevity records this year, but work remains to finalize a $7.35 billion state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and address a dwindling list of priorities that likely will push this year's session past the 100-day adjournment target.

Sure signs that the end is near are creeping into the chambers as packing boxes have appeared for pages to decorate or use as building blocks during stints of downtime. Senate pages stacked their boxes in a towering column, while House pages assembled theirs into a wall where an attached sign indicating it was paid for by Mexico came down as quickly as it went up.

There always are prospects for more mischief to ensue as legislators make last-ditch efforts to attach pet projects or issues to budget bills. Lawmakers also have unfinished business on topics such as Medicaid oversight, medical marijuana, fireworks, fantasy sports and water quality that may make it to Gov. Terry Branstad's desk.

That gubernatorial trek has been has been a road less traveled this year with only 96 bills having been enrolled at the start of last week - the 14th week of legislative work. The number of requested bill drafts were down significantly this year, according to the Legislative Services Agency, and it has yet to be seen how the legislative output will compare to recent years that have hovered in the low 140-range for bills passed to the governor.

The lowest total under control split between majority Republicans in the House and majority Democrats in the Senate was 138 bills sent to the governor in 2011 - although leaders in both chambers stress that their focus is on quality not quantity.

Even so, the wind down can become tortuous for part-time legislators anxious to get back to their non-elective lives.

For Hein, his adjournment measure is when soil temperatures hit 50 degrees - a threshold he, his son and father use to launch their spring planting operations.

'It hasn't quite hit that yet, but I've been watching it. When we hit 50 degrees, it's time to go home and sit in the corn planter,” he said last week.

'We very seldom start before the 20th, which is next Wednesday,” Hein added. 'With our equipment now, I always think that if we can put the corn in during the last week in April, it's ideal, and I think we've got a good opportunity of being done by that time.”