Government : Greetings from Under the Golden Dome

The legislative session re-started this week, continuing the work from a couple months ago and with a few new challenges ahead. This session looks much different than it did when we paused. Now, committee meetings are held in the Senate chamber instead of committee rooms to allow for social distancing, and speakers on bills will give comments from the Senate gallery instead of usually coming to the meeting tables. Our clerks that typically come in to help keep us on schedule and organized remain at home, ensuring a limited number of people in the Senate chamber and making sure we can work with distance in between each of our desks.

When the session was suspended, we still had a number of bills to get through a legislative deadline in order to be considered throughout the rest of the year. Now, we are taking that deadline and shortening it into a few days of work, while also debating bills on a wide range of issues.

This week the Senate had over 20 bills on our schedule for debate, dealing with a wide range of issues. Bill topics ranged from expanding ethanol usage to changing some rules around public construction practices and protecting money in the veterans trust fund. One of the main issues remaining for the session is the passing a state budget for next year.

When we suspended the legislative session in March, there was a lot unknown about how it would affect our state and how it would affect our budget. Recently, we received an updated estimate on how the coronavirus would affect our state's budget. The estimate for our general fund revenue next year has decreased by $360 million.

Throughout the last several weeks, even though we were not at the Capitol, we continued our work to ensure when we did come back, we would be ready. While we work on a responsible budget we know the state can afford, we will also be working to make sure the priorities we have been working on since the first day of session make it to the governor's desk for her signature. As always, if you have any questions or concerns on legislation we are discussing, or have any questions about resources still available for those affected by the coronavirus, please feel free to contact me.

Upon coming back to the Capitol after the Covid suspension, committee chairs were asked to meet with their respective committees and prioritize policy bills and postpone less important issues for a future session.

One bill I had authored was the Iowa Corn State license bill. You heard me before on this bill. This was an idea that could be delayed and not on my top priority list as a Transportation chairman. Wednesday I chaired what will probably be my last Transportation Committee meeting before my retirement from the Iowa Senate. Much to my surprise, some of my colleagues pitched in and presented me with a mockup of the proposed Iowa Corn State license plate. What a wonderful surprise! By the way, my nickname down here has been TK.