Busy Week Ahead
Iowa lawmakers are starting week three at the Iowa Capitol today, but the week will be dedicated to passing a moratorium on new casinos (HSB 80/SF 76). A House subcommittee and committee will be meeting today to make the change ahead of the February 6 Racing & Gaming Commission’s decision on awarding a new license to Cedar Rapids. Look for caucuses and floor debates – and of course lots of subcommittee meetings, including a few key ones for LWVIA:
- HF 88 (Monday @ 11:30 am) is an education omnibus that strikes the requirement home schooling parents or privately educated students not in an accredited school setting show proof of immunization and scales back reports that such instruction must supply to the state to demonstrate curricula. It also strikes the caps on the number of students who can be in such programs before needing accreditation, and prevents college discrimination against its graduates. The bill also prohibits a teacher from using gender-neutral language in high school World Language classes if the language uses a grammatical gender system (in other words, teachers can’t make up gender-neutral terms and must stick to the language being taught, which teachers say is of course what they do). To top it off, the bill doubles the tuition tax credit for private instruction. LWVIA is watching this bill.
- HSB 47 (Tuesday @ Noon) is supported by schools, educators, and children’s groups to improve school safety by requiring multidisciplinary threat assessment teams and allowing disparate agencies to share information. Identified students in distress are to be flagged for services and other appropriate interventions. LWVIA supports.
- HF 26 (Tuesday @ 12:30) requires employers to treat adoptive parents the same as birthing parents when it comes to maternity leave. LWVIA supports.
- HSB 37 (Wednesday @ 12:30) requires all Iowa-issued driver’s licenses and IDs include citizenship status on them, which while not explicitly stated in the bill, would require proof of citizenship when getting an ID. LWVIA is keeping an eye this bill right now to see if it advances. Another bill (HF 99) was introduced that would require this for voter registration, which LWVIA opposes.
- HSB 53 (Wednesday @ 4 pm) is the so-called “Freedom from Indoctrination Act,” which LWVIA opposes as a threat to intellectual freedom. It goes further into dismantling anything that may be considered DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) in academic coursework, subject studies, and administration within the Regents universities. The new House Higher Education Committee is also reviewing a “Syllabus Transparency Act” (HF 55) that is going after the same issues. Oddly, the same people proposing these have introduced HSB 52, which establishes a School of Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa (but is clearly going after “woke” education).
There is so much more I could talk about – but best to refer you to the League of Women Voters of Iowa Bill Tracker! Check back here frequently – our updates will get more focused as the session moves along. Remember you can watch all House committees and subcommittees, you can watch Senate committees, and you can remotely participate in Senate subcommittees! Schedule is updated frequently here.