Which bills are ‘dead’? Which are still ‘alive’?

DES MOINES — State lawmakers’ focus has been narrowed again with the passing of a second legislative deadline in the 2024 session of the Iowa Legislature.

This week brought the 2024 session’s second legislative “funnel,” a deadline created to gradually reduce the number of bills eligible for consideration by state lawmakers as each year’s session advances.

By the end of this week, bills passed out of the Iowa House needed to be approved by a committee in the Iowa Senate, and vice versa.

The funnel deadlines do not apply to bills dealing with tax policy, state spending or the budget. And legislative leaders in the majority party have multiple tools at their disposal to resurrect “dead” bills if they choose.

According to the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency, the Senate passed 42 bills to send to the House, while the House passed 141 bills to send to the Senate.

Thus far, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed just one bill into law: a measure that allows community associations near public lakes to regulate their members’ activity while on the water. Another 16 bills have passed both chambers and will be sent to the governor’s desk for her approval.

The following lists show which bills survived the second legislative funnel and remain eligible for consideration, and which did not survive the funnel and are thus considered “dead.”

The bills that remain eligible are split into two categories, and the procedural differences in how they remain eligible bear noting.

Those that advanced because of legislative action — these bills were approved by one full chamber and a committee in the other — are listed in one category.

Then there are bills that did not earn sufficient legislative approval to survive the funnel but remain eligible because Republican leaders deployed one of the aforementioned tools by placing them on lists of bills that keeps them eligible.

Passed both chambers

Senate File 2095: Religious Freedom Restoration Act

Senate File 2096: Repeal gender balance on state boards

Senate File 2161: Penalties for swatting

Senate File 2204: Reporting requirements for foreign farm land ownership

Senate File 2243: Adding digitally altered images to definition of child pornography

Advanced (legislative action)

House File 2586: Legal protections to allow school staff to carry firearms

House File 2487: Creating crime of grooming and requiring mandatory reporting in schools

Senate File 2325: Civil service requirements and ban citizen police review boards

House File 2401: Restricting pharmacy benefits managers charges for prescription medication

Senate File 2391: Meat substitute product labeling

Senate File 455: Topsoil and stormwater regulations at construction sites

House File 2531: Nuisance adult cabarets

House File 2240: Distributing digitally altered image or video portraying sex act as harassment

House File 2319: Prohibiting guaranteed income programs

House File 2617: Requiring anti-abortion human growth and development curriculum

House File 2539: Penalties for violating open meetings law

House File 2264: Permitting taxpayer funds to religious organizations for public services

House File 2464: Prohibiting use of merchant code to identify gun shops

House File 2364: Study accessibility of Iowa’s state parks

Senate File 455: Stormwater regulation

House File 572: Trespassing by drone near agricultural buildings

Eligible (leadership action)

House File 2612 and Senate File 2386: Area Education Agencies operation and funding

House File 2613: K-12 public school funding

House File 2610 and Senate File 2380: Early voting changes, banning ballot drop boxes, and candidate guidelines

House File 2583: Extending postpartum Medicaid coverage but to fewer women

House File 2267: State-run anti-abortion pregnancy support program

Senate File 2385 and House File 2574: Reduction of state boards and commissions

Senate File 2195: Early reading requirements

House File 2567: Creating state penalties for federal immigration law violations in Iowa

Senate File 2335: Additional cannabidiol dispensary licenses

House File 2605: Consumable hemp product regulation

Senate File 2023: Vaping product regulations

House File 2363: Paternal support requirements through pregnancy

Senate File 2159: Health insurance and biomarker testing

Senate File 2203 and House File 2426: Hotel inspection requirements

House File 2098 and Senate File 2174: Assaults in violation of protective orders

House File 2250 and Senate File 2348: Expanded penalties for witness and juror tampering

House File 2191 and Senate File 2164: Mandatory minimum sentences and earned time accrued

House File 2642: Soil and water resource management

Failed to advance

(Second funnel)

House File 2575: Fetal homicide penalties and “unborn person” in state law

House File 2584: Birth control without a prescription

House File 2389: Defining “man” and “woman” in state law

Senate File 2311: Allowing CPA to audit state agencies instead of state auditor

Senate File 2324: Prohibit Department of Natural Resources from purchasing land at auction

Senate File 2374: Collective bargaining unit decertification for employer’s failure to comply

House File 2558: Tuition cap, diversity, equity and inclusion program constraints at public universities

House File 2544: Required, conservative-written social studies curriculum

Senate File 108: Require employers to use E-Verify for all workers

House File 2608: Human smuggling penalties and barring undocumented immigrants from public assistance

House File 2391: Capping rates charged by staffing agencies for temporary nurses

Senate File 2191: Fire alarms and school shootings

House File 2560: Civil asset forfeiture constraints

House File 2482: Cancer treatment coverage in firefighter retirement benefits

Senate File 2106: Work search requirements for unemployment benefits

Senate File 2370: State rule-making process changes

Senate File 2286: Legal protections for physicians with religious-based objections to health care practices

Senate File 506: Eliminating state Certificate of Need process

House File 2569: Prioritizing Highway 30 expansion

House File 2304: Expanding ban on traffic stop quotas

Senate File 2116: Banning cruising in left late of traffic

Senate File 2369: Requirement to honor patient’s request for known blood donor

House File 2491: Radon control requirements for new houses

Senate File 345: Drug paraphernalia regulation

House File 2573: Medical standards for certifying medical conditions for medical cannabis

Senate File 2322: Banning use of bots to buy event tickets in bulk

House File 2305: Regulations for teenage workers in child care centers

Senate File 2392: Legal protections for pesticide manufacturers

Senate File 2371: Allowing animal feedlots to operate under proposed manure plans before DNR approval

House Joint Resolution 2003: Placing right to collectively bargain in Iowa Constitution

(First funnel)

House File 2082: Removing gender identity from Iowa Civil Rights Act

Senate File 2037: Prohibiting local bans on conversion therapy

House File 2352: Freezing tuition at regents universities

House File 2077: Canceling student organizations that support terrorism

House File 2072: Requiring administrators to also teach

Senate File 3168: Public library operations (Senate version)

House Study Bill 678: Public library operations (House version)

Senate File 2009: State-funded teacher spending accounts

House Study Bill 587: Requiring the national anthem to be sung daily in school

House Study Bill 604: Requiring teaching about patriotic holidays in public schools

House Study Bill 633: Making local elections partisan

House File 2221: Allowing cities to limit rent increases

Senate Study Bill 3085: Death penalty for murder of peace officer

Senate Study Bill 3094: Banning “social credit scores”

House Study Bill 532: Adding raw cannabis flower to medical cannabidiol program

House File 2169: Restricting minors from using tanning beds

Senate Joint Resolution 2001: Putting the right to abortion services in the Iowa Constitution

Senate File 2135: Adding right to contraception in state law

Senate File 2137: Reinstating state-funded family planning program

Senate File 2303: Nursing home patients’ Medicaid allowance

Senate File 2304: Nursing home oversight

Senate File 2305: $15 minimum wage for direct care workers

Senate File 2306: Home health care for seniors funding

Senate File 2097: County zoning to restrict pipeline projects

House File 2354: Requiring water pollution permit for CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations)

House File 488: Registration of “ghost guns”

Senate Study Bill 3175: Homelessness funding and criminal charges

Senate File 2074: Driving after consuming medical cannabidiol

House File 2051: Civil liability for pornography on social media

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