March 19, 2024

Iowa General Assembly – Legislative Session Week 10

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With the end of the second legislative funnel, all eyes turn to the House and Senate Unfinished Business Calendar. Starting this week, the Senate can only consider House bills, House Joint Resolutions, and Unfinished Business, and the House can only consider only Senate bills, Senate Joint Resolutions, and Unfinished Business (Joint Rule 20); this Joint Rule allows for chambers to clear calendars of lingering policy issues.

Now that the Revenue Estimating Committee (REC) has met and provided its revenue estimate, the legislature can begin working in earnest to put together a budget for the Governor to approve. While budget discussions have been ongoing since the Governor submitted her budget proposal in January, the March REC provides the final guidance needed to begin making funding decisions for FY 2025.

The priorities laid out by the Governor continue to drive policy discussions as well. After the first funnel, she had this to say:

“My legislative priorities focus on improving literacy, teacher salaries, and special education, aligning our mental health and substance use regions to better serve Iowans, extending postpartum coverage for women in need, cutting taxes, and further strengthening our laws on foreign ownership of land.”

Except for the foreign ownership of land (which she already signed into law), all of her other stated priorities remain alive either in bill form or in discussion.

With soil temperatures rising, March Madness in the air, and four-and-a-half weeks left until scheduled adjournment, there is much work left to be done before the legislature can adjourn and turn its attention to election season.

Dead or Alive?

Here is a quick take on key bills and their status after the second funnel—

Bill	Number	Status
Behavioral Health Regions	HF 2509/SF 2354	Alive
Expanding Postpartum Medicaid Coverage	HF 2583/SF 22 51	Alive
Maternal Support Program	H F 2267/SF 2252	Alive
Prescription-Free Contraceptives	HF 2584	Dead
Constitutional Amendment on Increasing Income Tax Rates	HSB 721/SJR 2003	Alive
House Income Tax	HSB 543	Alive
Senate Income Tax	SF 2398	Alive
E-Verify	SF 108	Dead
Exploitation of a Minor via Modified Images	SF 2243	To Gov
Defining Sex at Birth on IDs	HF 2389	Dead
Gender Identity in the Iowa Civil Rights Act	HF 2082	Dead
Hands-Free and Traffic Cameras	SF 2337	Alive
Road Use Tax Fund	SSB 3184	Alive
Arming Teachers	HF 2586	Alive
School Safety Infrastructure	HF 2652	Alive
House AEA Bill	HF 2612	Alive
Senate AEA Bill	SF 2386	Alive
Storm Water	SF 455	Alive
Work-Based Learning	SF 2260	Alive

The Chambers have yet to agree on the State Supplemental Aid (School Funding) for FY 2025. Both the House and Senate have placed their respective SSA bills on the Unfinished Business Calendar so they will remain eligible for consideration (H F2613/S F2258).

Governor Priorities

Compared to the first year of this General Assembly, the Governor’s priorities outlined in the Condition of the State in January are moving at a much slower pace. Here is a brief overview of where bills introduced by the Governor stand at the second funnel:

Working Title	House	Senate
Behavioral Health Service System	H F 2509 Passed HHS, in Appropriations	SF 2354 Passed HHS in Appropriations
Individual Income Tax, Property Tax, and State Funds	HSB 543 Not advancing	SF2398 Passed Ways and Means, placed on Unfinished Business calendar
State Government Reorganization, Code Changes	HF 2550 Passed State Government, in Ways and Means	SF 2377 Passed State Government, in Ways and Means
Area Education Agencies	HSB 542 Tabled (House introduced & passed their own version of the AEA bill)	SF 2386 Passed Education, on Unfinished Business calendar
Literacy Requirements, Students and Teacher Preparation Programs	HF 2618 Passed Education, on Unfinished Business calendar	SSB 3155 Not advancing
Work-Based Learning	HF 2516 Passed Appropriations subcommittee	SF 2260 Passed Workforce, in Appropriations
Postpartum Coverage, Medicaid	HF 2583 Passed HHS, on Unfinished Business calendar	SF 2251 Passed Senate
Administrative Rules, Regulatory Analyses and Authority	HSB 696 Not advancing	SF 2370 Passed Commerce, in State Government
Definition of Sex, Public Records and Statutory Construction	HF 2389 Not advancing	No Senate Companion
Agricultural Land, Foreign Ownership	SF 2204 Substituted	SF 2204 Signed by Governor
Dispensing of Self-Administered Hormonal Contraceptives	HF 2584 Passed HHS, placed on calendar	No Senate Companion

By the Numbers

So far this session, there have been over 1,500 bills introduced. Only 16 bills, a mere 1%, have made their way to the Governor’s desk. Typically, the likelihood of a bill making it through the lawmaking process and being signed by the Governor hovers just under 2%.

Bills Introduced by House	894
Bills Introduced by Senate	607
Total Bills & Resolutions Introduced	1521
Bills to Governor	16
Bills Signed by Governor	1

After a bill has passed both chambers and is officially enrolled (signed by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House) the bill is sent to the Governor for final action. The Governor must take final action on all bills passed by the General Assembly, either signing, vetoing, or taking no action. During the legislative session, the Governor has three calendar days to act on a bill once it is officially enrolled and messaged to her office (Note: although bills are automatically enrolled after final chamber action, there may be intentional or unintentional delays in official enrollment after final passage of a bill).

Below is a complete list of the bills awaiting enrollment/message to the Governor and bills signed by the Governor this session.

Bill	Title	Date Enrolled
HF 2101	Water system purchases	2/26/2024
HF 2175	Extends the repeal date of the Iowa Cell Siting Act.	2/26/2024
HF 2265	Increases the time for notice of non-renewal/renewal of a personal lines insurance policy.	2/26/2024
HF 2277	Prohibits certain conduct of a brewer with regard to wholesaler agreements.	2/26/2024
HF 2400	Permits 3^rd party access to dental provider care network under certain conditions.	2/26/2024
SF 2096	Repeals gender balance requirements for state boards and commissions.	2/26/2024
SF 2161	Increases the penalties for knowingly making swatting reports.	2/26/2024
SF 2204	Establishes registration requirements for foreign ownership of agricultural land.	2/26/2024
SF 2291	Brokerage agreements and broker powers.	2/27/2024
SF 2160	Creates new definitions and requirements for ambulatory surgical centers.	2/27/2024
SF 2095	Exercise of religion.	02/29/2024
HF 2394	Wholesaling of residential property.	03/04/2024
SF 295	Creation, administration, and termination of adult and minor guardianships and conservatorships.	03/05/2024
SF 2243	Sexual exploitation of a minor through altered images.	03/06/2024
SF 2262	Probation officer’s access to confidential information filed with the court for securing an arrest or search warrant.	03/11/2024

Revenue Estimating Conference

The REC projected that the state would bring $9.626 billion in FY 2024 (the fiscal year that ends June 30); this would be a net revenue decrease of about 2.2% from FY 2023. Last week’s projection was about $120 million lower than the REC predicted in December; at that time, they projected $9.746 billion in revenue for FY 2024.

The REC also projected a slight increase into FY 2025 (which begins July 1), projecting a 0.7% increase which will result in about $9.697 billion in revenue. In contrast, the REC also projected a slight decrease for FY 2026, projecting a 1% decrease which will result in about $9.600 billion in revenue.

By law, lawmakers are required to use the lower estimate from March to craft their budgets for FY 2025. Also, by law, Iowa’s state budget cannot exceed 99% of state revenue each year. Governor Kim Reynolds made her budget proposal in January using the December estimate. She recommended a total appropriation of $8.92 billion for FY 2025 (more than $1 billion less than the projected revenue that year).

With the state revenue numbers agreed upon, lawmakers can begin conversations related to the development of the FY 2025 budget.

Legislative Activity

Local Government

Stormwater

The House reconsidered S F 455 last Monday and passed it 53-46, reversing the vote from the previous week where the bill failed 44-49. The bill prohibits local regulations on stormwater runoff from being more restrictive than the requirements set by the Department of Natural Resources. An amendment accepted last week allows cities and counties to impose more restrictions if they pay for the increased cost of implementation. Because the bill was amended in the House, it returns to the Senate for consideration of the House amendment – they can either pass the bill as amended and send it to the Governor or insist on the Senate version.

June Primary Filing Deadline

The deadline for filing for the June primary was March 15. Statewide offices are not up for re-election this year, including the Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor of State, Treasurer of State, Secretary of Agriculture, or Attorney General.

Partisan Offices on the 2024 Primary Election Ballot

Full List of Iowa 2024 Primary Candidates

Full-List-of-Primary-Candidates-in-Iowa-for-2024-1 Download

What’s next?

Budget season is upon us. Leaders and Chairs have the information they need from the REC to begin dialing in their budget targets; we expect to see budget targets as early as next week.

Additionally, as appropriations and the state budget become evident, Republican lawmakers may focus their energy on finalizing a proposal on income tax reform in the coming weeks, which has been a top priority since the start of session. House and Senate leadership have not yet worked out a unified proposal. Senator Dan Dawson and Representative Bobby Kauffman have each introduced property tax legislation and will need to agree on a plan to send to the Governor if anything related to taxes is going to move this year.

Tax reform, education policy, and budgeting are likely to be the highlights in the coming weeks and in final negotiations leading up to (or past) the scheduled 100^th Day of Session on April 16. The full 2024 Session Timetable can be found here.

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.