The Iowa Legislature has wrapped the session, after two extra weeks of overtime work in order to finish final details, including setting the state budget for 2025-26.
The session ended at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, after lawmakers negotiated and debated final bills through the overnight.
The legislature passed major bills this session limiting eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines and removing civil rights protections for transgender Iowans. Most of Governor Kim Reynolds’ priorities got through, including restricting cell phones in schools and aiming to expand rural health care.
But Republican leaders in the House and Senate didn’t accomplish what they said was their top priority—providing property tax relief. They say they’ll keep working on that next year.
Democratic leaders say the GOP majority catered to special interests and failed to do anything to lower costs for working families.
*Among some of the final bills passed along to Reynolds is a measure that would overhaul Iowa’s economic development tax incentives.
It would limit state money spent on research and development tax credits to 40-million dollars per year. And it cuts some funding for the Endow Iowa tax credit that encourages donations to community foundations.
The bill would create tax credits to encourage the production of movies and sustainable aviation fuel in Iowa.
*One other bill sent to the governor came after lawmakers finally decided how to distribute Iowa’s share of a national settlement with opioid makers.
After about three years of disagreements, the bill [passed Wednesday evening gives about half of the $56 million dollars to 10 different substance use treatment programs in the state.
The Iowa Department of health and human services and the attorney general will distribute the rest of the money to opioid initiatives in consultation with the seven behavioral health districts.
Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner says she wanted the bill to have more transparency around which programs are funded, but she voted for it so the money can get used.
*Additionally, people ages 19 to 65 in Iowa’s Medicaid expansion program would have to work at least 80 hours a month to maintain their health benefits.
If Reynolds signs that, the proposal would require federal agency approval. It also makes exceptions for people who are pregnant, disabled, deemed medically frail, or receiving unemployment.
Republican Senator Mike Klimesh says the Department of Health and Human services projects the program will save the state $50 million dollars by the end of the fifth test year.
*In another bill passed by both chambers on Wednesday, public schools would have to let students from private schools participate in their sports programs.
The proposal stipulates the activity can’t have been offered for at least two years at the private school before a student can join a public school team. And the students would have to come within the same school district or a neighboring one.
Democratic Senator Sarah Trone-Garriot voted against the bill, saying it grants private school students special privileges without guaranteeing the same vice versa.
Iowa code currently allows private and public schools to make agreements to let students participate in activities at other schools.
*In one other piece that involves the state Capitol but not new legislation, a state lawmaker says Iowa’s Division of Criminal Investigation may have remotely searched people’s phones at the state Capitol for illegal sports betting without probable cause.
Republican Representative Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids says the DCI was testing the software at the statehouse before using it at college dorms. Athletes have sued the state for alleged warrantless searches that resulted in charges of illegal sports betting, and Jones says that lawsuit is how lawmakers found out about the Capitol search.
Jones says while the software tested at the capitol just looks at gambling, it raises questions about what else state law enforcement might be doing without a warrant.
“No one should feel that they are being spied on by their government in those conversations,” Jones said.
A spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Public Safety said unspecified "geographical areas” were used for demonstrating the gambling surveillance technology, and that no personal information was accessed or used during the training.
