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Iowa’s poor investment in state services and prioritization of tax cuts has held the state back, according to Democratic legislators. And in the waning days of the legislative session, legislators are now trying to wrap up the last items of business for the year, including the budget going forward. Currently, the legislature is working on […]
The proposed anti-trans legislation introduced this session may have failed, but the topic isn’t dead. For a bizarre, brief moment Rep. Sandy Salmon seized a moment to attack trans students. During the debate on HF 847, a bill about education programs in Iowa, Salmon introduced amendment H-1270, which would include a section barring trans girls […]
This Iowa legislative session has seen an unusually large number of extreme proposals, whether it’s discriminating against transgender Iowans or expanding the rights of gun owners beyond even the Second Amendment. Though not all have even made it through a subcommittee, Iowans have noted the change. That’s why Rep. Jennifer Konfrst appeared at Moral Mondays […]
The permitless carry bill that passed the House of Representatives last week has made it one step closer to becoming law, putting Iowans in greater danger of becoming subject to the growing problem of gun violence. Despite the recent mass shootings in Atlanta, Georgia and Boulder, Colorado, the permitless carry legislation is now headed to […]
Two firearms laws passed the Iowa House of Representatives last night that could threaten the safety of Iowans by making it easier for bad actors to purchase guns, and by making it harder to hold gun manufacturers accountable in a court of law. One of those bills was the Firearms Omnibus (HF 756), which passed […]
Up was down yesterday on the floor of the Iowa House of Representatives, as Republicans invoked Martin Luther King, Jr. and Karl Marx as they passed House File 802, a bill that would whitewash education by prohibiting the discussion of so-called “divisive concepts” in diversity training programs. The bill passed 59-36. One amendment expanded the […]
So-called “right to work” laws negatively impact a state’s workforce and economic growth, according to a recent report released by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal. Iowa is one of twenty seven states with such laws. The report, released last month, shows how, in terms of worker financial security, […]
Iowans are resilient, fair, and know how to pull together, taking care of each other in a crisis. That’s why there has been overwhelming bipartisan support for pandemic relief this past year, including for the American Rescue Plan that passed today. We are grateful for Rep. Cindy Axne and the Democrats in the U.S. House […]
The good, the bad, and the much worse would be an apt description of this year’s legislative session, and many of those bad or worse bills survived last week’s legislative funnel, a deadline requiring proposals to have passed through at least a subcommittee and committee hearing. Earlier today advocates and activists joined Moral Mondays Iowa […]
The Iowa Legislative Black Caucus, led by Rep. Ras Smith, has issued a response to Gov. Kim Reynolds, calling on her to put forward anti-racial profiling legislation, and to veto legislation that has been stripped of that language that she’s currently considering. Smith started the conference with this statement: “The path to racial equality is […]
