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This week marked the first major procedural deadline of the session, commonly referred to as the "funnel." By March 8, House bills must have been voted out of a House committee and Senate bills must have been voted out of Senate committee in order for them to survive. Read More »
We have now completed six weeks of the 2013 Session of Iowa's 85th General Assembly. The end of week five marked the first milestone: the deadline for individual bill requests. After February 15th individual legislators cannot request that the Legislative Services Agency draft bills to be filed under their name. This brings an end to the high volume of constituent bills being introduced. Read More »
The 2013 legislative session began on Monday, January 14 with speeches pledging bipartisanship from leadership in the House and Senate. Read More »
The 2013 Iowa legislative session will gavel in on Monday, January 14, the first of the two-year 85th General Assembly. For the most part, the 86th General Assembly will look very much like the last with a split legislature. Democrats will still control the Senate by a narrow margin, while Republicans continue to hold the House, but by a slightly slimmer margin than in the past two years. With chambers of opposing parties and a Republican governor, compromise will be essential to a successful session. A number of issues from the last legislative session will be back this year, including property tax reform, education reform, and mental health reform. Read More »
The session continues into extra innings following its scheduled end on April 17. No budget agreement had been reached on the "big number" for the overall State budget, so conference committees could not meet to negotiate. Most House members were sent home early and left the building Wednesday. At this point those in the lobby (and probably a lot of legislators) are hoping the session does not continue through much of the summer like last year. Read More »
April 17 marks the end of legislators' per diem, but session will continue beyond that date as budget and property tax negotiations continue. Progress has been made however, with most budget bills being assigned to conference committees and the passage by the Senate of the contentious Health and Human Services budget bill. Read More »
Tax Increment Finance continues to be a hot topic at the capitol. The House has its bill, HF2460, on the calendar for debate in the House. Many groups interested in economic development are following this legislation and are opposed to some of the significant changes proposed in the bill. Read More »
The week after the second funnel was relatively uneventful. Dozens of bills died as a result of Joint Rule 20 and can only be resurrected as amendments to another bill, joint leadership sponsorship or as part of the standing appropriations bill. Read More »
Friday, March 16 marked the second funnel deadline, when bills must be passed out of one chamber and then out of committee in the opposite chamber to continue to move forward. It creates a "crunch time" for many lobbyists as they try to ensure their clients' issues stay alive. Read More »
The budget discussion has started to heat up over the last couple of weeks. Statewide estimates made by the Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) set the tone for the session's budget discussions, because all budget bills must take into account the REC projections. Read More »
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