Pat Grassley, the GOP Speaker of the Iowa House, said he doesn’t believe anything other than redistricting will get done during the Oct. 5 special session. He was asked about it on 1040 WHO Radio on Tuesday morning.
“That’s the expectation that I have going into this,” Grassley said. “Obviously redistricting — we’re about six, eight months behind when this should have been done.”
The delay was caused by the Census numbers being slowed due to COVID.
Grassley said he believes the map is “fair.”
“I know some of my friends across the aisle immediately jumped up and down without even waiting to hear any public input,” Grassley said. “After looking at this map for a little bit, I don’t think it’s an, you know, it by no means is an unfair map.”
Grassley said his expectation is that redistricting will be the only topic of the special session.
“The Supreme Court is allowing the legislature to continue to use the same process that we always have,” he said. “I keep telling anyone that’ll listen, you know, we want to maintain the integrity of this process.”
Grassley said allowing members to address “one more issue,” by the time everyone weighs in, the legislature will be there for two weeks.
“That’s not what I want to see from this special session,” Grassley said. “Trust me, I’ve already heard from all the farmers. They’re giving me like a 48-hour window to work with. So we’ll have to work our magic.”
Speculation was the legislature may be able to provide some relief from Iowans having to decide between their jobs or their medical freedom when it comes to employer vaccine mandates, but based on what Grassley said, that isn’t going to happen.
Those Iowans in need of help from someone can receive immediate relief from Gov. Kim Reynolds by way of an executive order or through her calling for a special legislative session — or both, of course.
It sounds like Grassley, the leader of the Iowa House, has zero interest in helping those Iowans during the upcoming special session.
