Monday, March 6, 2017, will mark the 57th Session day of the scheduled 100-day session.

	A subcommittee meeting in the House Lounge with several people waiting to speak about a bill. This one involves Certificate of Need, a program at Public Health that regulates the locating of new health centers.

The Legislature will be looking to wrap up all of its remaining work in the next six weeks or so.

 

First Funnel

This past Friday was the "first funnel deadline," an administrative mechanism the Legislature uses to winnow away legislation that is not showing forward progress enough to have a realistic goal of becoming law. If a bill has not been approved by the committee to which it was assigned by the first funnel deadline, it is dead for the year. For example, a bill assigned to the House Education Committee to stay alive would need to have been assigned to a subcommittee, passed the subcommittee and then passed the full committee. Bills assigned to the committees on Ways & Means, Oversight and Appropriations are exempt from the funnel deadlines.

 

The first funnel deadline is probably the most challenging stage of the session for a legislator or a lobbyist (aside from the closing 2-4 days) because the funnel week and the week before it are stacked wall-to-wall with meetings from early morning often deep into the night. It is not uncommon to have meetings on bills every 15 minutes to a half hour from 8am to 6pm, and to also have multiple occurrences of three or more at the same time

A subcommittee on a bill to get rid of several boards and commissions drew so many attendees that over 50 people crowded the hallway never able to enter the room.

that requires racing across the building in order to weigh in on legislation while you have a chance.  

 

Heavy Lifting on Many Issues

This year's first funnel week was particularly exhausting due to the heavy lifting that had to be done on some of the priority bills for the majority party in the House and Senate. These included a major gun bill in the House, legislation to overhaul the Worker Comp system in both chambers, abortion bills dealing with both life at conception and a ban on procedures after 20 weeks, Voter ID legislation in both chambers, water quality legislation in both chambers, legislation to ban sanctuary cities, medical malpractice legislation, legislation to add regional representation to the Des Moines Water Works board, legislation to both continue and to expand the State's cannabidiol program, legislation to get rid of a number of professional licensure boards and commissions, and legislation to replace the popular bottle bill with a beautification grant program.  Some of these issues didn't make it, some had to be altered heavily in order to survive, and some stayed largely intact as introduced.

 

A lot of media focus this week was on the Worker Comp legislation, since the bills were just introduced and then rushed through subcommittee and committee in both chambers to keep them alive. The bill is extremely technical and really requires a decent understanding of the system and potential abuses to understand how it will impact workers and companies. Opponents are saying it is far-reaching and unnecessary; proponents claim the changes are desperately needed to update Iowa's system. The Iowa League of Cities does have a handy section-by-section analysis of the bill HERE.

 

The gun bill in the House has been covered heavily in the media for weeks, and it was slimmed down considerably in order to remove some of the controversy. The biggest piece to be stripped out was the prohibition on cities, counties, community colleges and the Regents Universities being able to regulate guns on their property. The bill still contains the controversial "Stand Your Ground" section, along with allowing kids of any age to shoot with their parents, and several permits changes that are largely non-controversial.

	Room 116 of the Capitol, packed during a subcommittee meeting on Worker Comp legislation.

 

The next few weeks will consist of two main things: Preparation for both the Second Funnel and the Budget

 

Second Funnel

The second funnel deadline is now four weeks away (on March 31, 2016), and is the date by which legislation, in order to stay alive, will need to have been passed by the committee to which it was assigned in BOTH the House and the Senate. To get ready for the second funnel, both the House and the Senate need to pass as many of their priority bills as quickly as possible over to the other chamber with enough time for the second chamber to be able to get the bill into committee, assigned a subcommittee, passed by a subcommittee and then passed by the full committee. The next couple weeks, in particular, will be loaded with floor debate in both the House and Senate. (Note though that if a bill exists in identical form in both chambers, and has been passed by committee in both chambers, it has qualified for the funnel deadline, even though it hasn't yet passed either the House or Senate.)

 

Budget

The Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) will meet on March 14, 2017, to assess State revenues and expenditures and to revise their estimates as to how much money the Legislature and Governor have to work with in the upcoming year. If they revise upward, then the Legislature will move forward on the budget process using (lower) numbers produced in the December REC meeting. If the revise downward, then the Legislature will need to start putting together the FY 2018 budget using the newer lower numbers. If the downward revision is large enough, it COULD require the Legislature to write and pass another deappropriations bill that attempts to lower expenditures even further over the final three and a half months of the current fiscal year.

 

Once the REC numbers are in, the Legislature will begin the budget process. The first step of that will be to divide the available revenues among the seven Appropriations Committee subcommittees and determine the overall amount each of them is authorized to expend in each appropriations bill. This is often referred to as establishing budget targets. Once the targets are set, each Appropriations Subcommittee begins that work of allocating those funds among the programs within their jurisdiction.

 

That means the next two weeks are a good time to be talking to your legislators about programs important to you! Once the appropriations bills are written, and your priority is underfunded, getting it increased requires taking it from someone else. That's never an easy proposition.

 

Public Hearings Monday/Tuesday

Late this past week, lawmakers set four public hearings for this Monday and Tuesday, March 6 & 7 at the Capitol. They are at different times on the following issues: the Des Moines Water Works bill, legislation blocking local governments from setting their own rules on issues like minimum wage (commonly called "preemption"), the Voter ID bill, and the Worker Comp bill. You can read the notices and sign up to speak at one of the public hearings by following THIS LINK. Additionally, if you feel strongly about these or any other issues, do not hesitate to contact your legislators; you can find them HERE