Iowa Library Association
Legislative Update | Issue #3 | February 12, 2022
Five weeks down, ten to go … maybe. Monday, February 14th will mark Day 36 of the 100-day scheduled session. Monday also marks the first day of the first funnel week. By close of business Friday, February 18th, all bills that have not been passed by a full committee as dead for the year (excluding tax and spending bills). 
 
Since most bills have to be first passed by a 3-person subcommittee, that means last week and the first part of funnel week was and will be PACKED with subcommittee meetings. As this week progresses, full committee meetings will start taking the place of subcommittees and will be packed in through at least Thursday morning. By the time it’s over, hundreds of bills will be dead for the year.
 
Meanwhile, bills are still being introduced at a higher rate than a couple of weeks ago. Most of them won’t have time to be considered. For the ones that are being scheduled for subcommittees and committee right away, it’s very common to have legislators agreeing a bill needs more work but advancing it in order to keep it alive for further discussion. 
 
Floor Work Heats Up the Week of February 21st
Once the funnel is over this week, the Legislature’s focus will shift to floor work as the chambers will move as many bills as they can to the other chamber in preparation for the second funnel deadline on March 18th. This flurry of activity in the weeks surrounding the first funnel should explain to a lot of people outside the building why the Legislature’s budget process doesn’t start to heat up until March every year. With that said though, it’s clear that both chambers are assembling their budget priorities behind the scenes.
 
Education Funding
The only bill that the Legislature is required to debate and get to the Governor early every session is the School Supplemental Aid (SSA) bill that sets funding for the upcoming school year. Late Thursday, the House passed a 2.5% increase in the SSA ($150 million), which the Governor supports. The Senate’s bill has an increase of 2.25% that they will debate early this week. While the Senate’s percentage increase is lower, their proposal devotes more money to paying down the difference between the district cost per pupil and the state cost per pupil.  
 
Log Into Zoom
For those of you wishing to virtually attend and speak on bills that are in a Senate subcommittee, you can do so on Zoom. However, you MUST be logged into an account. It doesn’t need to be a paid account, but it must be an account with your information. The reason for this is that the Senate, upon initial availability of Zoom for meetings, had problems with people abusing the system by being logged in anonymously and carrying out activities that didn’t belong in the meeting. 
 
The House uses the WebEx system for their subcommittees. You can watch their meetings, but you cannot speak about a bill under consideration unless you are physically in the room.
Keep up your Advocacy!

ILA and IASL have been busy the past couple weeks advocating on issues of concern to libraries and teacher librarians. Hopefully, you had a chance to take part in ILA’s Lobby from Home Day last Tuesday. If not (or even if you already did), we need your help to keep damaging legislation from being enacted this session.

In the Bill Tracker list at the end of this newsletter, you will see a lot of bills we are watching closely for ILA, many of which are going to have a hard time surviving the funnel without some sort of Herculean effort. Of those though that are likely to keep advancing, we are particularly concerned about two issues:

1.) Despite comments submitted by many ILA and IASL members as well as Zoom testimony by three IASL officers, SF 2198 passed subcommittee this week and is likely to be advanced through funnel by passing the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming week.

SF 2198 would create a new definition of "hard core pornography" in the Iowa Code and establish penalties for teachers that provide such materials to students. ILA, IASL and others argue that safeguards already exist in the Iowa Code and that parents already have a process to challenge books they deem as inappropriate. In short, we believe the existing system of local control works.

In case it might help you with your advocacy, you can view comments that were submitted on the bill HERE. Additionally, an opinion editorial by Chelsea Sims can be viewed HERE. In IASL's alert, they suggested all of you try to offer personal stories about students or families who were positively impacted and were healthier individuals due to books they found in their school's library.

2.) There are now bills in both chambers - SSB 3080 and HSB 672 by the Governor, as well as HSB 705 - that would add a sentence into the Iowa Code that specifically states that a teacher librarian license shall not require a Master's degree. IASL has some talking points on this issue HERE and EveryLibrary is helping ILA and IASL members weigh in on this with their legislators HERE.

We NEED YOUR VOICE on these two issues TODAY!

Also, mark your calendar and watch your email for more details about ILA’s Capitol Day on Tuesday, March 8th. 
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IASL Advocacy Chair Anne Coatar can be seen above addressing the crowded subcommittee on SF 2198 via Zoom, while IASL President Michelle Kruse and Dianna Geers await their turns atop the screen.
 
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Iowa House passing Education SSA funding on Thursday night
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Tax Bills
In the last update, we talked about the similarities and differences between the House, Senate and Governor’s tax bills. Since then, the Senate (SF 2206) and House (HF 2317) both have their bills ready for debate in their respective chamber and we anticipate the House going first this week with consideration of HF 2317. 
 
The non-partisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA) is responsible for analyzing the fiscal impact of legislation. They did release a fiscal note this week on HF 2317 that you can review HERE. 
 
LSA has not yet completed an analysis of SF 2206 which is much bigger in scope than the House bill. However, the Iowa League of Cities did an analysis of the effect of the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) changes in the bill and created a tool that you can review HERE. Since the bill would convert the LOST to a statewide penny and since not all jurisdictions have approved the LOST, that means some counties will see some shifting in the distributions of those revenues. The Legislature is still discussing possible changes to the bill that would alleviate this.
ILA Bills of Interest - Bill List
Check back often at the Bill Tracker link above to see more bills added as they are introduced.

Broadband & Technology
Requires the smart phone and tablet manufacturers sold in Iowa to have automatic filters to prevent downloading material harmful to minors.

Prohibits the state or political subdivisions from entering into contracts with, or providing tax incentives or other benefits to, certain companies that censor online content.

Civil Rights
Prohibits gender identify instruction for grades 1-6.

Prohibits someone of a different biological sex from using a school bathroom designated for the other biological sex.

Education
Allows students to be excused from sexual orientation or gender identity instruction.

Requires schools to install cameras in classrooms to livestream footage for parents/guardians to watch their children's classrooms.

Allows school districts to prohibit connecting to social media sites using school servers.

Allows a private school student needing special education courses to be placed in those courses without prior approval by the AEA and removes requirement that the holder of a teacher librarian endorsement have a master's degree.

Makes provision for rights of parents and guardians of students.

Makes several provisions related to education.

First Amendment/Free Speech
Prohibits a social media platform from censoring the expression of a user based on the viewpoint represented or the viewpoint of another user or the location of the user.

Proposes a state constitutional amendment that prohibits the legislature from making any law restricting the books or other written instructional materials in educational institutions.

Requires schools to designate an administrator to ensure that no obscene material or hard-core pornography is available in school libraries.

Local Government
Defines protecting information from cyber-attacks as an essential county/corporate purpose.

Other
Places requirements for local government lobbying and contracts.

Prohibits any group that receives tax funds from providing training that teaches, advocates, encourages, promotes, or act upon stereotyping, scapegoating, or prejudice toward others on the basis of demographic membership or identity.

Makes it an aggravated misdemeanor or Class D felony for a school employee or public librarian to knowingly give obscene material to a minor.

Requires internet sites and applications containing obscene content to prohibit access by minors.

Allows city councils to overturn a library's decision to place materials in a particular location within the library when residents express concerns.

Moves the date to not allowing public funds to be spent on lodging if the lodging provider has not certified compliance with human trafficking training to June 30, 2022.

Allows a governmental body to conduct a meeting electronically even when it is possible or practical to conduct the meeting in person.

Public Health
Prohibits employers from requiring employees or applicants from having to receive a vaccine that has not been approved by the FDA.

Tax
The House's tax reform bill.

The Senate's tax reform bill.

Governor's Tax Plan.
Your Bill Tracker
Click above to see status of important bills, or create your own report with our custom download.
Town Halls & Public Forums
Find a local event with your state or federal elected officials here. Three weeks are shown at a time on this website.
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