All six Republican U.S. senators from Siouxland voted on Tuesday in support of President Donald Trump’s priority tax and spending bill.
Those voting yes in the Senate were John Thune and Mike Rounds from South Dakota, Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, and Pete Ricketts and Deb Fischer of Nebraska.
The measure known as the Big Beautiful Bill Act extends tax cuts from 2017 and adds deductions for tips and overtime pay.
It would also add work requirements for some low-income people to qualify for Medicaid health coverage or SNAP food assistance.
The most recent estimate by the Congressional Budget Office says the bill would increase the national debt by 3 trillion dollars over 10 years.
The bill is headed back to the U.S. House where all four Iowa representatives voted in favor of the previous version of the legislation.
Concerning the bill, Elon Musk tweeted, “Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
*Additionally, as Pride month ends, transgender Iowans no longer have state civil rights protections.
Iowa is the first state to take gender identity out of its civil rights code. Governor Kim Reynolds signed the sweeping bill in February, and it went into effect Tuesday, July 1.
Rita Bettis Austen is the legal director at the ACLU of Iowa . The group has been a part of several discrimination cases since gender identity was first protected in 2007. She says there are federal protections in employment, but they aren’t as strong as the state law was.
Maxwell Mowitz leads the LGBTQ rights group One Iowa. He says more people are asking his group about community supports and safe spaces for transgender people.
“This legislation doesn't mean that organizations can't put in their own supportive policies. And I think that that's really important. People think, ‘Oh, well, this is the legislation. So there's nothing that I as a coffee shop owner can do.’ But that's not actually true. You can create a new ceiling. You can create that new protection. So that's a big piece of what we're doing.”
People born in Iowa won’t be able to change the sex designation on their birth certificates anymore. And, as a result of the law, lawmakers were able to ban Medicaid coverage of some gender-affirming care.
Reynolds and supporters of the law say it’s needed to protect women’s rights.
*Starting July first, drivers will only be able to use their phones and electronic devices in hands-free mode. The new law is aimed at reducing accidents and crashes from distracted driving.
Law enforcement will only hand out warnings for the first few months. Starting January 1st, they can issue citations with $100 fines.
Alex Dinkla is the Iowa State Patrol Public Information Officer. He says this grace period is to educate the public and help people shift old habits.
“Put that device in that Do Not Disturb mode, driver focus mode. Whether you have an Android, whether you have an iPhone – each of those phones has a feature so that you're not tempted by that chime, by that phone call,” Dinkla said. 14SEC
Dinkla says there are easy ways to comply – like turning on speakerphones. People can also set up bluetooth, plug in auxiliary cables or use phone mounts to use their device hands free.
Last year, the Department of Transportation recorded more than 900 crashes due to drivers being distracted by their phone or another electronic device.
*In other news, a new report suggests Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem supplemented her income while serving as South Dakota governor.
The report, published Monday by investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica, said Noem secretly received $80,000 dollars from a "dark money" group in 2023.
South Dakota Public Broadcasting reported the money came from a nonprofit that promotes Noem called the American Resolve Policy Fund.
Its tax filing shows it paid an $80,000 fundraising fee to Noem’s personal company. That company was registered in Delaware minutes before the American Resolve nonprofit was incorporated there. American Resolve noted the fee was payment for Noem bringing in $800,000.
Noem did not include this payment in the disclosure form she released after President Trump selected her as DHS Secretary. That disclosure noted the existence of the company, but said Noem did not receive income from it.
The ProPublica report said while it’s normal for politicians to raise money for nonprofits that support them, it is unusual for them to keep some of that money for themselves. It also raised other questions about the American Resolve nonprofit.
"Since the nonprofit is a so-called dark money group — one that’s not required to disclose the names of its donors — the original source of the money remains unknown," the report said, while also noting it's unclear what the bulk of its money was spent on.
Noem’s attorney Trevor Stanley issued a statement saying Noem “fully complied” with federal disclosure laws and was approved by the Office of Government Ethics.
*Additionally, a special election has been set to fill the seat of an Iowa lawmaker who died last week of pancreatic cancer.
Republican Rocky DeWitt of Lawton was in his first term. The 66-year-old previously served as a county supervisor and the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office.
Governor Kim Reynolds has scheduled the election for Tuesday, August 26th for voters in Iowa’s Senate District 1, which covers a part of Woodbury County and Sioux City.
