Sweeping education bill survives Iowa legislative deadline; pipeline bill doesn’t

DES MOINES — Sweeping education policy that, among other things, would define what kind of graphic material would lead to a book’s removal from Iowa’s K-12 schools, advanced Thursday, surviving a key legislative deadline.

So did legislation that would place some restrictions on how the state auditor could conduct investigations into state and local government entities.

One bill that did not survive this week’s deadline was a bill that would have required a high threshold for voluntary landowner participation in carbon capture pipeline projects before eminent domain could be pursued.

They are among the most consequential developments of the 2023 Iowa legislative session’s second funnel week, which concluded Thursday.

The “funnels’ are legislative deadlines designed to whittle the number of bills that state lawmakers can continue to consider during the session. The deadlines were established to force lawmakers to gradually shift their focus to bills that have sufficient levels of support.

By the end of this week’s deadline, bills to survive had to be passed by the chamber in which they were introduced, plus out of a committee in the other chamber. In other words, a bill that was introduced in the House needed to be passed by the full House and moved forward by a Senate committee.

Bills that did not reach that legislative threshold by the end of this week, with some exceptions and caveats, are no longer eligible for consideration this year.

The exceptions include any bill that contains state spending or tax policy. The caveat is that legislative leaders have multiple procedural tools that could resurrect any policy, if that is their intent.

Graphic books and gender identity teaching

House lawmakers advanced out of their Education Committee a bill that ties together transparency measures and restrictions on library books and LGBTQ instruction that Republicans previously advanced this session.

Senate File 496 was amended in committee to provide a more detailed process for schools to notify parents if a student requests to be called by a different name or pronouns to remove or change transparency measures in the original bill, and to specify rules prohibiting school library books with “graphic” depictions of sex acts. A requirement that students pass the U.S. citizenship test to graduate also was removed.

The maintains the prohibition on teaching about gender identity or sexual orientation in kindergarten through sixth grade.

The House committee also combined the bill with a number of bills the House has already passed dealing with the board of education examiners, health care and seizure measures in public schools, among others.

Rep. Skyler Wheeler, a Republican from Hull who chairs the House Education Committee, said negotiations with the Senate to approve the changes to the bill are ongoing.

Democrats in the House committee, who voted against the amendment and the bill, said they still opposed the portions of the bill restricting library books, removing requirements about teaching HPV and HIV in schools, and requiring parental notification if a student wants to transition genders.

“All of these bills are heinous and despicable. And, quite frankly, un-American,” said Aime Wichtendahl, a Hiawatha City Council member and the state’s first transgender elected official.

Wichtendahl was introduced on the House floor Thursday by Rep. Ken Croken, D-Davenport, in recognition of Transgender Day of Visibility on Friday.

“We have a right to read. We have a right to explore new ideas. That’s what this country was founded on,” Wichtendahl said, adding that her friends’ lives were destroyed in the ’80s and ’90s when they were forcibly outed as LGBTQ.

“While we would like to think parents would be supportive, the cold truth is not every parent is,” Wichtendahl said. “And sometimes that will make a difficult situation even worse,” putting kids at risk of conversion therapy and homelessness.

“If the governor had any dignity or care for Iowa’s children, she would pull this bill,” Wichtendahl said, adding transgender Iowans are scared and “wondering whether Iowa is the right place for them.”

Pipeline requirements

Perhaps the most noteworthy bill that did not survive this week’s funnel was a House-passed bill that would prohibit the use of eminent domain to acquire land for carbon dioxide pipelines unless the private companies reach voluntary easement agreements with at least 90 percent of landowners on the pipeline’s planned route.

The bill passed the House on March 22 with bipartisan support, but did not get a subcommittee hearing in the Senate this week.

The bill, House File 565, also was not among the dozens of bills placed on the Senate’s “unfinished business” calendar, another tool by which legislative leaders can keep a bill alive beyond the funnels.

Senate Republican leadership this session had not expressed an interest in regulating the projects, and only one bill addressing CO2 pipelines received a subcommittee hearing, where it did not advance.

“I don’t know what the future of that bill is. Obviously right now, it’s not looking like it’s a very healthy future for it,” House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, told reporters Thursday. “We still feel very strongly about what we passed, and we really believe it was the right thing for us to do.”

House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst, of Windsor Heights, criticized Senate Republicans for killing the bill, saying they were “kicking the can down the road for something that we’re not going to be able to avoid talking about.”

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, told Radio Iowa on Thursday the “conversation isn’t over” on pipeline legislation in the Senate.

“We’re hearing a lot from both sides, and we’ll continue to take that feedback and see if there’s consensus in the caucus,” he said. “Right now there isn’t.”

Auditor bill

One bill that survived the funnel would address more specifically how the state auditor could conduct investigations and resolve disputes with other state government agencies.

Majority Republicans in the House tweaked Senate File 478 as they passed it out of the state government committee Thursday, but the thrust of the bill remains the same: The auditor’s office would be required to declare when an investigation begins, would be limited from acquiring certain personal information during an audit, and any dispute with another state government agency — including the governor’s office or other statewide offices — would be resolved by an arbitration panel and could not be taken to court.

During a subcommittee hearing on the bill earlier this week, current State Auditor Rob Sand — the only Democrat elected to statewide office in Iowa — addressed a Democratic lawmaker’s suggestion that Republican lawmakers are targeting him, and thus undercutting the ability of the office to fully function as the state taxpayers’ watchdog.

“If people want to target me, they should insult me and lie about me and say terrible things about me,” Sand told reporters after the subcommittee hearing. “This bill harms taxpayers.”

A bipartisan coalition of state auditors wrote Iowa lawmakers to say they believe the legislation would restrict the ability of the Iowa auditor to root out corruption in state and local government.

Republicans say the bill protects Iowans’ personal information and puts into state law general accounting standards.

Child labor

Proposals that would loosen child labor protections in the state failed to advance off the floor of either chamber, but remain alive for further consideration.

Both House File 647 and Senate File 542 were placed under unfinished business, meaning they still could be debated and passed this session.

The legislation would allow teens to work longer, later hours in more jobs, including those formerly off-limits as being hazardous, and would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to serve alcohol at businesses with an alcohol retail license.

Teens as young as 14 could request a waiver from the directors of the state workforce and education agencies to work as apprentices in factories, mines, construction sites and warehouses, among others, as part of “work-based learning” programs.

The House bill also eliminates the Iowa Labor Commissioner’s authority to require work permits for minors in certain occupations and give the state new discretion to waive, reduce or delay civil penalties if an employer violates any child labor law.

Both bills passed out of House and Senate commerce and workforce committees on largely party-line votes and are pending consideration by either chamber.

Republicans have said the bills would help businesses find workers in a tight labor market and help young Iowans become more engaged in work.

Democrats and labor groups contend the measures weaken child labor protections and violate federal labor laws. Parents and union workers across the state gathered over the weekend to protest the proposals to roll back state child labor laws.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville

House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford