Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement File Ethics Complaint Against Sen. Mike Bousselot
Grassroots group cites Bousselot’s extensive ties to Summit Agricultural Group as a conflict of interest
Members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) submitted a conflict-of-interest complaint with the Iowa Senate regarding Sen. Mike Bousselot (R–Ankeny) today. Iowa CCI contends that his ties to Bruce Rastetter’s Summit Agricultural Group should have precluded him from chairing the Senate Commerce subcommittee considering House File 565.
Board Chair of Iowa CCI Barb Kalbach submitted the complaint along with a group of CCI members to the Secretary of the Senate Monday afternoon.
“Bousselot should’ve recused himself from this subcommittee immediately given his extensive ties to Bruce Rastetter and Summit Agricultural Group,” Kalbach said. “The same Summit Ag. that stands to reap billions in taxpayer money if the proposed carbon capture pipelines are approved. House File 565 would place greater protections for landowners in the path of the pipelines. If that’s not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.”
Bousselot was employed by Summit Agricultural Group as a managing director and head of external relations in 2017 and 2018. Before that, Bousselot was Chief of Staff for then Governor Terry Branstad, who now serves as Senior Policy Advisor for Summit Carbon Solutions, a subsidiary of Summit Agricultural Group.
HF 565 passed the Iowa House of Representatives by a vote of 73-20 on March 22, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration. On March 27, it was assigned a subcommittee chaired by Busselout in the Senate Commerce committee. The Senate Commerce committee did not meet that week, nor was a subcommittee held before the second self-imposed legislative deadline of March 31 for most bills not related to government spending or the budget. Legislative leadership can assign any bill to Ways and Means or Appropriations to keep it alive, and are able to bring a bill back to the floor at any time.
“On March 28, Bousselot was quoted as saying the bill was dead,” Kalbach said. “Where there’s political will there’s a way. He could have scheduled a subcommittee meeting on this. As vice-chair of the Commerce committee, he could’ve urged Sen. Waylon Brown to hold a committee meeting. And legislative leaders can take up a bill at any time regardless of self-imposed legislative deadlines. So not only does it appear Bousselot has a conflict of interest, he misled the public too.”
Iowa CCI members are calling on the Senate to address Bousselot’s conflict of interest and for legislative leaders to bring HF 565 to the Senate floor for debate.
