LETTER: Reject Rozenboom amendment, pass governor’s emergency powers reform bill

HF2694 is a vital bill that reforms the emergency powers of the Governor and is long overdue from our Republican Trifecta. It passed the State House with a Supermajority earlier in the session, but it has been amended by the State Senate’s State Government Committee to include language that would turn Iowa’s budget system into a mirror of Washington D.C.’s disaster of continuing resolutions. It basically makes the last year’s budget (or portion of it) automatically continue if legislators do not pass a new one. This sounds good on the surface, but it is actually intended to hamstring individual Legislator’s leverage. The State Legislator has never failed in its constitutional duty to pass a budget yet, and only 4 states have parallel laws, so it is clear that the reason leadership is doing this not to fix a non-existent problem. Instead, this an attempt to remove one of the best tools that conservative legislators have used at least 3 times in the past decade or so to force votes on important issues by refusing to vote for the budget until certain bills were brought to the floor. Remember, the reason many good bills fail is not lack of support from legislators – it is Leadership deciding not to bring them up for a vote (often so that RINOs are not embarrassed).

For example:

Around 2013, Rep. Tedd Gassman and 4 other representatives refused to pass the budget until Iowa’s current Homeschooling Law, including the very valuable option of IPI, was brought to the floor (It passed and governs homeschooling in IA to this day!)

In 2018, Sen. Dennis Guth, Jim Carlin, and others refused to pass the budget until the Heartbeat Bill was brought to the floor (it passed and was repassed more recently after being struck down in court).

Last year, 12 State Senators known as the “Dauntless Dozen” refused to pass the budget until HF639, a bill to protect landowners from the CO2 pipeline was brought to the floor (It passed the Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Reynolds).

It’s obvious we don’t have a problem with getting budgets passed – no one can remember a time when we didn’t get it done. But Senate Leadership apparently has a problem with Conservatives forcing votes on issues that matter to Iowans (and had majority support!)

We need HF2694, EXACTLY as passed by the House, to pass the Senate – so that Iowan’s rights are protected from “emergency” powers abuse. That means that amendment added in committee must be either ruled/voted “non-germane” (Which means it has nothing to do with the topic – why is a bill with emergency powers suddenly becoming a vehicle for a totally unrelated regulation on budgets?) or removed by a vote of the Senate tomorrow when it is brought to the Senate Floor!

This means that everyone needs to contact (at least) their Senator and emphasize that they need to get HF2694 passed the Senate EXACTLY as passed by the House – either by voting the budget amendment as not germane (it is not!) or by voting to remove it on the Senate Floor. This may be our last chance to reform the Governor’s emergency powers if we get the wrong outcome in November, and they need to take action. Unless the amendment is removed and the bill passes as passed by the House, it is unlikely to pass at all.