Watching the Iowa Legislature Work Overtime

The Iowa Legislature worked overtime on Saturday to finish the session. Their final day with pay was on Friday, but since their work was not done they came on Saturday to finish things up. Technically, the House and Senate worked until Sunday, with the Senate adjourning at 12:07 am and the House adjourning at 12:39 am.

My wife was in Des Moines on Saturday for a conference. I went along and spent the day hanging around Des Moines. In the morning, I stopped by the State Capitol and watched the Senate in action. Things were pretty calm as they discussed the Health and Human Services appropriations bill (HF 911). Most of the discussion concerned tattoo and body piercing parlors being inspected by the Department of Health. This was not included in the final bill, which passed 34 - 16.

I then met my wife for lunch and then found a coffee shop to sit in and grade some tests for school. When I got that finished, I went back to the State Capitol to hear the House debate on a Standings Appropriations bill (SF 601). Rep. Oldson (D-Polk) began by asking Representives to withdraw ammendments to this bill that are policy based and don't have anything to do with appopriations. This led one Republican Representives to comment that there is so much pork on this bill that he could hear it squeel when it came in.

A large majority of the ammendments were withdrawn, but a couple came to a vote. One (H 2062) was from Rep. Grassley (R-Butler) asked that money be taken away from Terrace Hill security and landscaping to create an immigration task force. This drew a response from Rep. Oldson that immigration is a national issue and not much can be done at a state level. The ammendment was defeated 39-50.

The hottest debate was on an ammendment by Rep. Griener (R-Washington) about wild boars and feral swine. I never realized this was such a big issue, but then again I don't live on a farm. The bill would outlaw two breeds of boars and outlaw feral swine. The reasoning is that they spread disease, harm the environment, and damage ecosystems. I guess there was a compromise bill that was thrown out and this disapointed some Representives. Discussion on this ammendment lasted over an hour. Rep. Horbach (R - Tama) called this bill a win for the big guys and that it would put some little guys out of business. Horbach was very passionate on the issue. Another Representive said that this should be a separate bill because it is a policy issue and it should wait until next year's session. At the beginning of the discussion, I knew very little about the issue. After hearing the debate, I probably would have voted no. The ammendment ended up passing 50-42. The overall appropriations bill passed in the House 52-39 and later in the Senate 30-19.

This was my first time watching the Iowa Legislature in session. It was interesting to see them work, debate, get some things accomplished, and not accomplishing some others. The legislators were more frantic to get things done as the day went on. The mood in the Senate was pretty calm, while that evening in the House things were a little more heated.

Here are wrap ups of the Legislative session...
Popular Progressive
Register 1
Register 2
Yepsen
Gazette

I will post my review of the session later in the week.

**Update**
Here is a story from the Register on the wild boars being banned.