I hope everyone has had a great week! I’m excited to share some updates from week 12 in the Iowa House. As a reminder, this week was the second “funnel” deadline in the Legislature. In order for policy bills to continue moving forward, they needed to pass out of either the House or Senate AND a committee of the other chamber by the end of this week. These deadlines do not apply to Appropriations (budget) or Ways & Means (taxes) bills. That means that many of the bills you may have been following are no longer eligible for further consideration. It also means that this was our last week of policy committee meetings. Moving forward, my schedule will be focused on floor debate and Appropriations. This week I was closely involved with three important bills, two of which are described in the articles below, so please be sure to read all the way to the end! The first is SF 496, one of the Governor’s education bills. I served on the subcommittee and it passed the Education Committee this week. I spoke against the bill expressing my concerns related to banning books in school libraries as well the extra requirements for parents to opt-in to just about every survey related to mental, emotional, and physical health used in schools to better understand the needs of our kids. As a parent, I know that paperwork gets lost in the shuffle and I don’t want our kids to miss out on sharing their experiences in a way that will help our teachers and school staff better support all of our kids as a whole. We want to make sure that when these surveys are done, the sampling is complete so that the data collected and used to make decisions is accurate. I am also deeply concerned that the bill would remove the requirement to discuss HIV/AIDS, HPV, and the HPV vaccine from human growth and development curriculum. While the bill doesn’t ban the discussion of these topics, we know that what is often not required doesn’t get prioritized or even discussed. Given the rising number of STIs and throat cancer (caused in part by HPV) in Iowa, I believe the last thing we should be doing is taking away a requirement to talk about these critical topics. The second is SF 326, a bill that would allow pharmacists to order and administer epinephrine auto-injectors (epi pens) and self-administered birth control to persons ages eighteen years and older. In last week’s newsletter I mentioned my work on the subcommittee for this bill. I am excited to share that we passed the bill out of the Health & Human Services Committee this week with bipartisan support! The third is the SNAP (food assistance) and Medicaid (health care coverage) bill. I served on both subcommittees for the House and Senate versions of this bill on Tuesday. The majority party decided to move the Senate version of the bill (SF 494) through the Appropriations Committee on Thursday. There was bipartisan opposition to the bill, and only partisan support (2 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting NO in committee). Here is what you need to know:
- Creates new asset and verification tests for individuals and families eligible for public assistance programs for SNAP, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). These asset limits are for a household so that even includes a kid’s savings account.
- It is expected that 2800 recipients will lose food assistance, 600 children would lose health care coverage, and 8000 people would be kicked off of Medicaid because of mistakes made on paperwork (discrepancies, not fraud)
- It is expected to cost the State about $8 MILLION just to implement these new requirements, and we are not expected to save much more than that a few years from now.
- We are expected to LOSE approximately $53 MILLION in federal funding for food and health care for Iowa families. This is money we will all continue to pay in the form of our federal tax dollars that will go to other states to feed and provide health care to families. It cannot be reallocated for another use in Iowa.
- The food assistance program is paid for with 100% federal funding. The state only pays for 50% of administrative costs.
- SNAP has a multiplier effect. The money received for food assistance goes into our communities in form of supporting our local grocery stores and other local businesses.
- Iowa already has a robust suspected fraud investigation process. The cost to implement expensive asset tests and verification programs has not been shown in other states to save money, it only hurts families who are already struggling.
We requested a public hearing on this bill and it has been scheduled for Tuesday, April 4 at 9:30am at the Capitol (room 103). I urge everyone who is able to please attend. We all know that Iowa families are struggling in communities across the state to put food on the table and access health care. Food pantry use is at record highs. The last thing we should be doing is making it hard for Iowa kids to get the food and health care they deserve. In addition to attending the public hearing, I encourage everyone to reach out to Speaker Grassley and Majority Leader Windschitl to ask them not to bring SF 494 up for a vote in the House. Finally, when it comes to bills, the one I have gotten the most emails about over the last two weeks was SF 516, a bill that would have severely restricted the DNR’s ability to acquire public lands and for communities to expand trails. As an advocate for public lands, conservation, and outdoor recreation, I think it’s important for DNR and local communities to be able to work with private landowners to expand public lands as they are currently allowed to do. And I strongly believe that all of these things are a huge part of quality of life, which then supports economic development in communities across Iowa. I was strongly opposed to this bill and was ready to vote NO in the State Government Committee this week. Fortunately, at the last minute, the bill was removed from the agenda because there weren’t enough votes to pass it. I am so glad this bill won’t move forward this session! Looking ahead, budget committees are just starting to receive their “budget targets”, meaning how much each committee is able to allocate to different departments and programs. As a reminder, for me, that is the Economic Development budget. The targets are determined by the majority party based on how much they want to spend. As Ranking Member, I am looking forward to working with Rep. Graber (the committee chair) on recommendations for how to best utilize these funds. Working on the budget signals getting close to the end of the session. We are officially supposed to be done on April 28, but we’ll see how the negotiations go over the next few weeks. One factor that may keep us here longer is making sure that all the changes made to the departments through the massive government reorganization bill are categorized correctly into the different committee budgets (HHS, Education, Public Safety, etc….). I look forward to sharing these details as I have them. One more thing I want to mention is that this week I had the chance to attend a reception for the NEW Iowa Nonprofit Alliance (INA). Nonprofits do so much amazing work in all of our communities and the impact of that work goes throughout the state and beyond. Having worked for nonprofits and serving on several boards, I know some of the challenges faced by this sector. INA was created as a way to come together, effectively advocate, and support each other. If you are part of a nonprofit, I encourage you to check them out and see if being a part of the Alliance would be helpful for your organization and the people you serve! Or if you are part of a business that wants to support nonprofits, you can absolutely check out ways to help. Here is their website to learn more: https://iowanonprofitalliance.org/.
