The Senate has now completed its third week of the session. On Monday we debated the Students First Act I talked about in the previous week. I received lots of input from my constituents and responded to as many as I could before the vote was taken. Your input is important to me.
During the bill signing, Governor Reynolds said, “Public schools are the foundation of our education system and for most families they will continue to be the option of choice, but they aren’t the only choice. For some families, a different path may be better for their children. With this bill, every child in Iowa, regardless of zip code or income, will have access to the school best suited for them.”
In the Local Government Committee, we are considering some bills that would eliminate or modify the County Compensation Board that recommends salary increases to the Board of Supervisors. I have heard some counties like how their county compensation board works and some despise them. I’d like to hear more from people in my district about this issue.
This week I was visited by eighty-plus opponents to the carbon pipelines. Many of those came from close to home and I appreciated the sacrifice of their time to be at the Capitol. I have filed my opposition to these pipelines with the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) and urge others to do the same. I am concerned about this waste of taxpayer money being used for something that provides nothing for Iowans. I have a bill being written to tell the IUB that these pipelines do not qualify for eminent domain. In my opinion, we are giving up too many freedoms such as property rights for a cash payoff. Those rights should not be for sale.
I also had about eighty Baptist students visit with their sponsors from Iowa Baptists for Biblical Values. I delight in explaining to students how our state government works and have them see that this arena is a great place for people of faith to be involved. They were very respectful and attentive, and I am so glad that they will one day have the opportunity to be a part of government themselves. No matter how discouraged we become with our system of government, it is still the best in the world.
I also had the opportunity to visit with Michael Farris who help found Homeschool Legal Defense and to pass Iowa’s first homeschool law in the 1980s. He also founded Patrick Henry College and recently stepped down as CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom. He chaired the committee that wrote the Federal Religious Freedom Act in 1993. I am introducing a similar bill in Iowa, so I really appreciated having him visit with senators on the State Government Committee.
