Capitol Notebook: Lawmakers advance bill allowing Iowa county attorneys to be armed at all times

DES MOINES — A bill that would allow county attorneys and assistant county attorneys to apply for professional weapon permits is taking a step forward in the Iowa Legislature.

With a professional permit, county attorneys would have the same authority as police officers, security guards, bank messengers, correctional officers and private investigators to carry a gun in most places where firearms are banned.

House File 2083 would allow county attorney or assistant county attorney who are issued a permit to go armed anywhere in the state at all times, including on school grounds.

The bill provides that permits issued to county attorneys and assistant county attorneys are valid for the duration of their employment as a prosecutor, unless otherwise canceled.

Lawmakers have considered the proposal in recent years but failed to pass it.

Jessica Reynolds, executive director of the Iowa County Attorneys Association, told lawmakers that while serving as Story County attorney, the brother of a defendant assaulted an assistant county attorney in the hallway of the courthouse.

The Iowa Judicial Branch is registered as undecided on the bill.

Members of the subcommittee advanced the bill, 2-1, for consideration by the full Senate Judiciary Committee. Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, voted no.

“I always, you know, philosophically question whether more guns actually keep us safer,” James said. “ … So I really wrestle with the unintended consequences of a bill that would make a major departure” from current practice.

“I certainly want to make sure that we have a safe, you know, court spaces, and I would like to see something like an investment in more court security if this is really a concern,” she said.

Bill would require teaching about patriotic holidays

Iowa schools would be required to teach students about a list of national holidays and conduct “patriotic exercises” under a bill House lawmakers advanced out of a subcommittee Thursday.

House Study Bill 604 would require to schools observe and teach about the meaning and significance the following holidays on the day they fall or the nearest school day:

The rules would not apply to private schools.

Education advocates told lawmakers the bill was an unnecessary mandate on school curriculum. Iowa State Education Association lobbyist Melissa Peterson said the rules written in the bill are also vague and unclear.

The bill was advanced by two Republicans on a three-person House subcommittee. It is now eligible for a vote in the full Education Committee.

Rep. Brooke Boden, a Republican from Indianola, said the Department of Education could provide clearer standards to schools if the bill becomes law.

“I think we need to make sure that we are teaching our children to respect America, and that they should know what each one of these holidays means.” “ … If we as a nation are willing to have these as holidays, we should understand them, we should understand them fully.”

Bill advances barring undocumented immigrants from in-state tuition

House Republican lawmakers Thursday advanced House File 2128 that would make undocumented immigrants ineligible for in-state tuition.

Members of the House Judiciary committee voted 13-7, with Democrats and one Republican opposed, advancing the bill for debate and a vote by the full House.

It would require that a person provide proof of U.S. citizenship or proof that they are “lawfully present” in the country to be considered for in-state tuition at Iowa’s public universities and community colleges.

Democrats said the bill would deny education to a swath of Iowans who grew up and pay taxes in the state. According to estimates from the Migration Policy Institute, about 37,000 undocumented immigrants lived in Iowa as of 2019.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, created legal protections for some people born before 2007 who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children. Most undocumented graduating high school students today are not eligible for DACA, according to FWD.us, an immigration political advocacy organization.

State Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, who chaired a subcommittee on the bill, said it was, in part, an answer to the rising rates of unlawful border crossings under President Joe Biden.

Bill barring universal basic income programs in Iowa advances

House Republican state lawmakers on Thursday also advanced legislation that would prohibit taxpayer-funded basic income programs in Iowa.

The programs are designed to lift people out of poverty by providing them with a baseline and steady source of income.

One such program is operating in central Iowa — UpLift, a pilot project of Mid-Iowa Health Foundation in Des Moines using donations and public funds. Under that project, 110 low-income central Iowans were chosen to receive $500 per month for two years. The impact of that basic income on those participants will be studied.

Lawmakers amended the legislation to address concerns of families who are receiving and relying on the money, allowing existing payments to continue until Jan. 1, 2025, or when the program is set to end, whichever is earlier.

The Central Iowa program launched in May of last year, with payments scheduled to continue for two years. A final evaluation report will be completed in the spring of 2026.

Bill sponsor Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said universal basic income programs create an incentive for people to stay home and not work, go against free-market principles and come at a time when Iowa’s workforce has shrunk since the pandemic, leaving employers looking to fill jobs.

“We need to foster hand work and independence, not dependence on government through programs” that aren’t sustainable, Holt said.

One in seven Iowa working households don’t earn enough to meet a basic-needs budget, according to Common Good Iowa.

“This bill is nothing but a roadblock to lifting up Iowans out of generational poverty,” Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, said.

The House Judiciary Committee voted, 13-6, to advance the bill to the full House.

Iowa AG calls for defunding U.N. agency

Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird and South Carolina Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson are calling on Congress to defund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Major donors to the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency have suspended funding after allegations emerged that around 12 of its tens of thousands of Palestinian employees were suspected of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas, Reuters reported.

“For even a single taxpayer dollar to fund a corrupt organization that hires and harbors terrorists is despicable,” Bird said in a statement. “President Trump got it right when he stopped payments to UNRWA in 2018. It’s the federal government’s job to prosecute terrorists, not fund them. We’re calling on Congress to take immediate action and defund UNRWA once and for all.”

The letter, signed by attorneys general from 26 states, called on congressional leadership to cut all funding to agency.