This past week the Iowa House passed the Senate version of the “Bathroom Bill”. Some have questioned my vote on this bill as well as my vote in committee on the House’s version. At the outset, I want people who are critical of my vote to go back and actually read both bills and to think through how the language in each bill will play out in real-time. The House bill had a critical number of issues because of bad drafting that would have led to a great deal of uncertainty, unintended consequences and litigation.
And the Senate version was worse. Both bills attempt to balance the rights of students to use a bathroom and feel safe and secure while doing so. I agree wholeheartedly with that approach. The Senate bill failed miserably and would have made the situation worse as it did not extend the obligation of schools to provide accommodation to use a single-stall bathroom. This glaring problem was acknowledged by the floor manager but proceeded anyway. This lack of appropriate legislative forethought will only lead to much uncertainty, unintended consequences and litigation as well. I want my daughter to feel safe and secure in bathrooms and locker rooms as well as any of you do. But the Senate’s bill has just the opposite effect. For that reason, I could not support it.
