2nd funnel sidelines legislation

On April 4, legislation that has not been forwarded by a Senate or House committee is sidelined for the current legislative session.  They say that bills are never dead until the final gavel falls.  What that means is that legislation can be moved forward as amendments to other bills.

The legislature is scheduled to adjourn on May 2.  Often they run a few days after that.

Among the bills that were sidelined is the pesticide indemnity bill (SF394) and the authorization for Iowa to join the Midwest Passenger Rail Compact (HF533).

In the upcoming weeks, the legislators will be addressing the funding for REAP and its environmental programs, several bills to improve access to open records and open meetings, the property tax exemption for forest and fruit tree reservations.  We will continue to advocate for retaining the forest and fruit tree property tax exemption.  We will also advocate to extending REAP beyond 2026 and fully funding the program at $20 million.

Finally, we will continue our advocacy for legislation protection Iowans and landowners from the carbon dioxide pipelines.