Iowa Christian Alliance Legislative Report - June 1, 2006

The Legislature adjourned after a 115-day session, fifteen days longer than scheduled. Education funding, including a teacher pay raise was one of the issues on which the parties and the Governor could not agree. If you are interested in what the final bill looked like, access the Legislative Service web site through our web site, www.iowachristian.com , and look up H.F. 2527, Education Appropriations, and S.F. 2272, the Education Policy Bill. If you are interested in how the Senior Tax Cut Bill, S.F. 2408, turned out, you may also access that bill. In short, this bill increases the income exclusion for seniors to $18,000 (single filers) and $24,000 (joint filers for years 2007 and 2008) and $24,000 (single) and $32,000 (joint) for 2009 and after. Social Security: Eliminates the tax on the portion of Social Security benefits currently taxed from 2007 to 2014.

Other legislation we worked on during the last few days of the session was: Legislation to encourage public libraries to install anti-porn filters on their public access computer Internet services. Senators Zaun, Brunkhorst and McKibben attempted to amend the provisions to the education bill. Had they been successful, libraries that did not install filters would lose state grant funds. They currently lose federal funds if they do not install filters. This legislation will be introduced in the next session. Senator Brad Zaun has assured us he is not giving up on this issue.

The Governor has 30 days from the end of the session to sign or veto legislation. Therefore, we can’t really be sure at this point in time which bills passed by the Legislature during the last few days will actually become law. If any surprises happen after the Governor’s deadline, we’ll let you know. So how do we rate our efforts during this session of the 81st General Assembly? Considering that we could count on a slim majority favoring our issues in the House, no majority in the Senate and a Governor antithetical on just about everything we favor or oppose, not bad.

On the issue of gambling expansion, our efforts and those of other family values organizations and individuals were rewarded by the removal of TouchPlay machines. Thousands of e-mails, phone calls and letters convinced legislators that Iowans have reached a breaking point on gambling. I believe this issue will be brought up again next session, but in some other limited form. We will need to be ready to respond again.

Declaring homosexuality as a protected civil rights class was attempted by including it as a “trait or characteristic” in several school anti-bullying bills. We’ve reported to you in the past on these efforts. We are opposed to anyone bullying anyone for any reason and would support legislation that would solve the problem. But to use it as a vehicle to endorse homosexual behavior is not only counter productive, it is dishonest.

The Governor, aided by legislators who represent the Senate and House districts in which the University of Iowa is located, attempted to reverse 2002 legislation that banned human cloning in the state of Iowa. Senate and House Republicans blocked these efforts. Again, values voters’ emails, calls and letters, convinced legislators that Iowa voters do not favor the taking of innocent human life for the furtherance of dubious benefits from medical experimentation. The University of Iowa did establish a cord blood bank for purposes related to “adult” stem cell research and treatment. We are supportive of that endeavor.

Obviously, our biggest disappointment was not getting a vote on the marriage amendment in the Senate. The Democrat leadership would not let the amendment out for a vote in committee and, therefore, on the floor of the Senate. We talked to every senator in both parties and counted enough votes to pass it out of the State Government Committee and a comfortable majority to pass it on the floor. Senators Gronstal, Hatch and Kibbie not only opposed the bill, they manipulated the process to keep the amendment from coming to a vote. Their efforts to keep Iowans hostage to the threat of gay-marriage approval by an Iowa judge were shameful. Thousands of Iowans contacted their senators to garner support for the amendment. This issue, along with the TouchPlay issue, generated more legislative contacts than all the other controversial bills that came before the Legislature combined. We will start the process again next session. How successful we are will depend on who controls the Senate and House after this November election. If we have a speaker or majority leader, Rep. Pat Murphy, or a Senate President or majority leader, Sen. Mike Gronstal, the task will be made much harder.

Finally, in the last couple of weeks before the Senate adjourned, the Republicans made an unusual leadership change which caused us some concern. Senator Stuart Iverson of Dows, Iowa, was replaced as Republican majority leader by Senator Mary Lundby of Marion. Senator Iverson had been a reliable friend and supporter of values voters during his tenure in his leadership role. Senator Lundby has not been particularly supportive of our issues. After discussions with senators we have trusted over the years and with Senator Lundby, we have decided to take a wait and see attitude. Senator Lundby has pledged to follow the desires of the Republican caucus and to put her personal political agenda second to that of the caucus. How this situation is resolved will depend on the November election and whether either party has a clear majority. We will keep you apprised of the situation.

Norm Pawlewski

ICA Lobbyist