Government : Hello, Iowa House District 84 from the State Capitol!

The third week of session at the Capitol was just completed and it's been full steam ahead to hopefully finish by the end of April.

On January 24th, I chaired a subcommittee for House Study Bill 576 (HSB 576). This bill is from the Natural Resources Committee and would permit the use of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and off-road utility vehicles (UTVs) to be driven on roads in Iowa's state parks. Current law allows registered ATVs and UTVs to be operated on undivided two-lane highways in Iowa, except for interstates. The bill restricts ATV and UTV travel to where motor vehicle roads and streets only inside the state parks. The interesting part is Backbone State Park already allows ATVs and UTVs to travel their roads. It could even help promote tourism by allowing them inside state parks.

On Thursday evening, I attended a Legislator's in-service in the Manatt Center in Brooklyn. This is an annual event hosted by the BGM and HLV superintendents that includes 14 school districts. The school districts from the Iowa House District 84 included Benton Community and Belle Plaine. We had several good discussions about a variety of topics, including truancy, student behavior, SSAs, the AEA bill, limiting pre-K classes at 20 kids, teacher shortages, and increasing teachers' salaries. These are all very real problems that are happening probably in most schools across Iowa and will be discussed this session. I'm confident a bill for the SSAs will be voted on the House floor in the next week or two so school budgets can be set.

I'm not on the Education committee, so currently, I don't know what is being discussed in these areas. I've had many emails about the HSB 542 AEA bill, from District 84 constituents and across the state. I have not yet seen any amendments to this bill at the time of writing this. As with any bill of this size, basically almost all are amended. We should wait to see what the amendments offer to make an informed decision. The bill is not being rushed and has not even had an Education subcommittee yet.

It's great to have the bitter cold daytime negative temperatures leave the state! A couple more weeks and chances for those below zero days will be history! My apologies for a computer issue last week that didn't send my email. Sometimes electronics don't do what you tell them to do.

Have a safe week and be careful of any foggy weather out there