Session Winding Down, Budgeting Begin
The Iowa Legislature has entered its final (maybe) month of session. Legislators lose their per diem expenses that cover staff, lodging, meals, and mileage for their time at the Capitol on April 28. While they can, and usually do, go over this deadline, it's a powerful motivator to wrap things up. There is still a lot of work to get done over the next three weeks, and legislators will have to pick up the pace soon or a lot of bills will not make the final cut.
March 31 was the final "funnel" deadline, marking the end of most committee work. Only Appropriations and Ways & Means Committees will continue to work, all other bills must be ready for debate. You can check the IPA Bill Tracker for a complete rundown of bills surviving and now dead.
Surviving Bills:
- Several bills to improve access to behavioral health survived the deadline: prohibiting mental health professional non-competes (HF 93), eliminating barriers to prescribing psychologist practice (HF 183), creation of a psychiatric fellowship program (HF 274), adding outpatient community-based competency restoration to the list of core services MH/DS regions are to fund (HF 471), requiring the YourLifeIowa/Suicide hotline information be printed on every high schooler's ID card (HF 602), and updates to the mental health provider loan repayment program (SF 253/HF 244).
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The Governor has signed state government reorganization (SF 514).
- The House and Senate are bouncing their "parents rights" bill (SF 391) back and forth, unable to agree on which version of forced LGBTQ-outing, booking-banning, don't say sex in school version of the bill is the best. Apparently telling kids about the one vaccine to prevent cancer (HPV) is also not appropriate. The bill is back in the Senate's hands for a second time with a House Amendment.
- The House and Senate both still have their companion bills that weaken Iowa's child labor laws (SF 542/HF 642). Kids as young as 14 can take on some dangerous work to help us solve our workforce shortage.
Despite overwhelming opposition, the House continues to move forward to add new household asset tests for public benefits (SF 494) like Medicaid, HAWK-I, SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program), and FIP (family investment program). There are currently no asset tests for HAWK-I, and the asset tests in place for Medicaid are for the individual (not the household). A person's retirement, house, primary care, and $10,000 of value on a second car are set aside. All other assets would count forward the $15,000 limit. The bill estimates 8,000 Iowans would lose Medicaid and 2,800 would fall off SNAP (but SNAP savings are federal; all the savings to the state are from Medicaid). The bill would require more than $20 million and more than 250 staff before the fourth years $8 million savings is realized. Most groups say this will hurt kids the most.
Bills Not Making the Cut:
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Eliminating a lot of HHS Boards & Commissions (HF 566)
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Prohibiting insurance switching off medications that are working (HF 626)
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Eliminating certificate of need for community mental health centers (SF 506)
- Prohibiting anything DEI at state universities (HF 616)
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Allowing health care providers to refuse to provide services if it violates either ethical, moral or religious beliefs (SF 297)
Budget Update (Fiscal Year 2024)
The one thing the Legislature must get done before they adjourn is passing a Fiscal Year 2024 budget. The House ($8.58 billion) and Senate ($8.49 billion) are roughly $90 million apart, with the House willing to spend a little more. Both chambers’ overall numbers would spend less than 90% of incoming revenue (they cannot legally spend more than 99%). That leaves just over $1 billion unspent, ostensibly for future tax cuts.
The Senate’s overall budget number - $8.49 billion - is in line with the Governor’s proposed budget. However, many argue the Governor’s support of some initiatives during the session demonstrate her budget numbers are actually higher now than the numbers she proposed earlier. Due to timing during the session every year, the Governor has to submit a budget to the Legislature in December before seeing the scope of what initiatives the Legislature might put forward for consideration during the session.
The Iowa budget typically consists of 10-11 separate Appropriations bills that are generated by the legislators on the Appropriations Committees as well as the seven appropriations subcommittees. The full Appropriations Committee chairs will usually divvy up the larger ($8.58/8.49 billion) budget number into smaller allocations (or “targets”) that fit into each of the budget bills.
Currently, we have Senate bills without numbers, and House numbers without bills.
This week, the Senate ran seven shell appropriations bills out of committee that included no dollar figures or employee numbers, with the goal of having legislative vehicles ready for Senate consideration as soon as their is agreement on the final budget numbers. Conversely, the House does not yet have any bills ready, but they did release their individual subcommittee budget targets to enable their budget bills to start taking shape.
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