Our second legislative deadline has passed, meaning we had another busy week as we worked on moving House bills through the Iowa Senate. Policy bills are required at this time to be through a committee in the opposite chamber to be considered for the rest of the legislative session. This process keeps us focused on important priorities, bills with enough support to remain viable at this point during session, and hopefully helps us end session on time this year. It usually also means as we work on legislation, we are finding additional issues that may prevent it from moving forward.
Several topics have come across our desks this week. We’ve been hearing a lot about Second Amendment legislation, education bills dealing with curriculum taught in schools, nursing and workforce issues, and so much more. Two issues that come up consistently when talking with Iowans are public safety and mental health. The Judiciary Committee, which I chair, discussed a few bills this week aimed at helping Iowans, supporting Second Amendment rights, and dealing with the fentanyl disaster that continues to consume our country and our state.
House File 2576 creates a first-degree murder charge for delivery of fentanyl to another person if that delivery results in the death of the other person. We have taken several measures recently to try to address the rise of fentanyl deaths happening across the country and doing what we can in our state. Because of the emergency at the border, this crisis has devastated families all over the state. House File 2576 is one more step we can take to try to curb the devastation and help Iowans avoid the loss of a loved one.
Another bill, House File 2421, is aimed at protecting Iowans from harming themselves or others. HF 2421 allows a federal firearms license holder to take possession of an owner’s lawfully possessed firearm at the owner’s request, hold the firearm for an agreed period, and return it according to the terms of the agreement. It also provides liability protection to federal firearms license holders when they are trying to prevent suicides.
