| We are less than a week from the last scheduled day of session, so the fourteenth week included a lot of floor debate as we work with bills going through both the House and the Senate. Most of those bills were unanimous.
The governor signed several bills into law this week, including a few important ones focused on national security, protecting Iowans, and guarding our citizens against the numerous threats currently facing us. On Tuesday the governor signed SF 2204, strengthening Iowa’s foreign land ownership laws to further protect our state’s greatest resource, tightening those rules, and providing us with more information about foreign entities owning Iowa land and the reason they own it. The governor also signed SF 2340, making being an illegal alien in Iowa a crime and giving law enforcement additional tools as we look at how to protect our state amid the ongoing crisis at the southern border.
Earlier in the session the Senate passed a bill that says food products made from cell-cultivated, insect, or plant protein, cannot be sold as meat products without proper labeling. The House added egg products to that list and we passed it again this week.
On Wednesday the Senate passed HJR 2006, a proposal for a constitutional amendment requiring a two thirds majority to raise income tax rates in Iowa. This resolution is the second constitutional amendment Senate Republicans have proposed and passed in the last two weeks to protect taxpayers from the growth of government, reckless spending, and to further guard their pocketbooks. Last week Senate Republicans passed a proposal for a constitutional amendment to put a flat tax into the Iowa Constitution. Both of these proposals have proven popular with voters with nearly 68 percent of Iowans saying they would support a two-thirds majority requirement to raise taxes in our state. Furthermore, the debate on this bill perfectly illustrates why this requirement is important. It was obvious that Democrats would rather raise taxes than consider limiting spending. This resolution must be passed again after this fall’s election and then can be placed on the ballot for public approval in the 2026 General Election.
The Senate also passed HF 2586 this week allowing a school to have the option of having some of its staff on campus armed. Staff carrying concealed weapons to protect their students is completely voluntary both for the school district and any staff member interested in participating. No school or school employee will be required to have armed staff or carry a weapon.
Iowans are rightly concerned about school security. In a recent Des Moines Register poll, 65 percent of Iowans supported the bill. In the event of a school shooting, every second matters. Having trained, prepared personnel on location to protect the vulnerable must be a priority in any society.
The session will soon be over and my focus will be on planting for a few weeks. I do hope to get out in the district to see many of you this summer. |
