Capitol Notebook: Bill ending required periodic hotel inspections in Iowa passes state Senate

DES MOINES — A requirement for periodic state inspections of Iowa hotels would be eliminated under legislation that advanced in the Iowa Senate on Tuesday.

Under the Republican-proposed legislation, which is supported by the state inspection agency and the trade association that represents hotels, a requirement that the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals inspect each hotel in Iowa once every two years would be removed from state law.

Iowa Sen. Carrie Koelker, R-Dyersville, said the law codifies what essentially is already current practice by the state, which prioritizes requested inspections over mandated inspections, and inspections at food preparation and service locations over hotels.

Koelker also put the onus on hotel companies to self-police.

“We need to have our hotels step up and take responsibility for their reputation, their bedbug problems, their own communities,” Koelker said during debate.

Democrats raised concerns about a lack of required hotel inspections, which they said could give Iowa a black eye and hurt tourism and efforts to grow the state’s population if out-of-state visitors stay in dirty hotels.

“I don’t understand why we don’t want to have inspectors,” said Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo. “We want to make sure that Iowa’s a welcoming place. … We are inviting and we want people here. We are short people (who live in Iowa), and we want to sell Iowa as a great place to live, visit and enjoy yourself. This bill just smacks against all that.”

Koelker, who spent 22 years as executive director of the Eastern Iowa Tourism Association, said she would not be running a bill if she thought it would hurt Iowa’s tourism industry.

The bill, House File 2426, passed the Senate on a largely party-line vote, with all Democrats voting against it and most Republicans voting for it. One Republican, Sen. Rocky DeWitt, R-Lawton, joined Democrats in voting against the bill.

The bill previously passed the House; but since it was amended in the Senate, it must return to the House for final approval before being sent to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk.

Legal protections for pesticides narrowly advance

Legislation that would add legal protections for pesticide manufacturers that adhere to certain labeling requirements narrowly passed a Senate committee.

Under the proposal, which was introduced by Republicans and proposed by the pesticide manufacturer Bayer, pesticide manufacturers could not be sued for failing to alert people of potential health risks if the product has a federally-approved warning label.

Bayer has faced lawsuits from individuals claiming it failed to warn consumers of the potential health risks of the company’s glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup. Bayer has a plant in Muscatine that manufactures Roundup.

The bill stipulates that the immunity would not apply to Chinese state-owned companies, singling out the massive agriculture and chemical company Syngenta.

The EPA found glyphosate is “not likely” to be carcinogenic and has determined there are no “risks of concern to human health,” but a U.S. appeals court in 2022 vacated those findings for procedural reasons and required the agency to reconsider.

The bill, Senate Study Bill 3188, narrowly passed the Senate budget committee by an 11-9 vote. It now is eligible for consideration by the full Senate.

The bill previously failed to earn sufficient passage prior to a legislative deadline that passed last week. But it was considered a second time in the Senate budget committee, where bills are not subject to those deadlines — even though the bill contains no state spending.

Adding fake photos to harassment laws

Images or videos that have been altered or faked — including through use of artificial intelligence — in an attempt to show an individual engaged in a sex act, would be added to the state’s harassment laws under legislation approved unanimously by the Iowa Senate.

The proposal would make such violations an aggravated misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine between $855 and $8,540.

The proposal, House File 2240, passed the Senate, 49-0.

It also previously earned unanimous approval in the Iowa House, but will need to go back there for final approval because it was amended in the Senate.

State drops E15 lawsuit

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced her office has dropped a lawsuit after the federal government last month approved the year-round sale of the E15 blend of ethanol.

“I should not have to sue Biden in the first place to get him to follow the law, but I am glad that he finally did the right thing by permitting the sale of E15 gasoline during the summer months,” Bird said in a statement.

The new federal rule, which takes effect in April 2025, will apply in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to the Associated Press. Those states grow the bulk of the U.S. corn crop and are home to much of the nation’s ethanol production.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau