The Iowa Senate has passed a religious freedom bill that opponents say could open the door to discrimination based on religious grounds.
The Senate bill says state and local laws cannot restrict a person from observing their faith unless the government has a compelling interest. Republicans who approved it on a party line vote late Tuesday said it is meant to guard against government interference in the exercise of religion.
Democrats warn that leaves the door open to Iowans using religion to justify discrimination against gay and transgender people, or for employers using it as the basis for withholding health coverage for contraception or abortion.
The bill is modeled after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.
Republican State Senator Jeff Taylor, of Sioux Center, says the bill gets back to the country’s early principles. Another Northwest Iowa Republican senator, Jason Schultz, of Schleswig, introduced the bill.
An identical bill is in play in the Iowa House.
Additionally in Des Moines, many labor union supporters came to the Iowa Legislature on Wednesday afternoon, in order to protest what they called an anti-union bill in the Iowa Senate.
The Iowa Senate Bill proposed by majority party Republicans says that a union could be decertified if an employer/manager fails to provide the state with a list of eligible employees for the recertification election. Public sector unions would have five days to file a lawsuit if the employer didn’t meet the state’s deadline, which Democrats and labor unions say is unfairly short.
Some people at the Capitol carried placards that read, “Stop The War On Workers, “ while Teamsters union members carried a banner that said, “Kill The Union Busting Bill!”
A 2017 Iowa law requires union recertification votes before labor contract negotiations take place, which happen every few years. Republican Senator Adrian Dickey leads the committee that previously moved the bill forward in the chamber.
In other news, almost $400,000 dollars will be spent for the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office to purchase the first armored vehicle in the county sheriff fleet.
Sheriff Chad Sheehan worked with the county board of supervisors in their weekly Tuesday meeting to pinpoint funding of $385,000 dollars. Sheehan contended such an armored unit is necessary in an increasingly violent world, particularly in active shooter situations.
More than half the money came from unspent money in the county’s larger projects capital fund. The vehicle will be specially made, to be finished roughly in a year in early 2025.
One year ago, the Sioux City Council approved the police department to pursue grants to buy an armored vehicle.
