Screen Shot 2022-01-06 at 10.50.39 AM.png

House Declares March Disability Awareness Month

The snow may have sent most Senators home early this week, but the Iowa House kicked off a busy Thursday with House Resolution 9, which declares the month of March “Disability Awareness Month in Iowa.” Dozens of disability advocates from the Iowa DD Council, Disability Rights Iowa, and Vocational Rehabilitation Services joined legislators on the House floor to witness the reading and passage of the resolution.

The idea for the resolution and the event came from advocate Emma Bouza of Hawarden. You can read more about how she started with her idea here.

It was President Ronald Reagan who first declared March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, when he signed Proclamation 5613 in 1987. Iowa's resolution recognizes the value Iowans with disabilities bring to their communities, families, and the state. It’s a time to raise awareness of the contributions people have made and the barriers that still exist to living a fully inclusive life. The Iowa DD Council’s awareness month handout to legislators gives suggestions for how policy makers can include people with disabilities in the decisions that will affect them the most.

Emma was helped by Rep. Art Staed, Rep. Tom Jeneary, Sen. Jeff Taylor, and Sen. Izaah Knox. In addition to Reps. Staed and Jeneary, eight other legislators helped read in the resolution: Rep. Steven Bradley, Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, Rep. Ken Croken, Rep. Thomas Gerhold, Rep. Martin Graber, Rep. Heather Matson, Rep. Josh Turek, and Rep. Elizabeth Wilson. Sen. Nate Boulton gave the welcome in the Senate.

Read the resolution here.
Watch the House pass the bill here.
See the Senate welcome advocates here (forward to time marker 9:05:40).
Check out our Capitol Snapshot on the event here.
Go to the Iowa DD Council website for Disability Awareness Month activities.
Read Emma's flyer for more ideas on celebrating Disability Awareness Month!
Get the Iowa DD Council's Seat at the Table flyer distributed to legislators.

Legislators and disability advocates in House chambers in front of speaker's desk.

Iowa DD Council member Stella shakes hands with legislators.

The Scoop

The House and Senate debated a lot of bills last week, including the bill that makes changes to state departments.

The Senate did not fix the things that worried people with disabilities.

Under the bill, Iowans who are blind will no longer have as much “say” in the Department for the Blind.

Guardians will all use the same form under another bill passed by the Senate.

Advocates got to watch the House pass the disability awareness month resolution.

The resolution started as an advocate’s idea.

Week Nine Filled with Debate

With the first legislative deadline in the rear-view mirror, legislators turned their attention to floor debate. The House and Senate passed 46 bills this week, including several that were protested by groups that support the rights of gay and transgender Iowans. Legislators sent a bill to the Governor that bans any gender-affirming medication or surgeries for minors, even if parents approve of them.

The Senate took the first step in reorganizing government by voting its bill out (SF 514) on a party line vote (34 Republicans voting for, 15 Democrats voting against). Legislators removed the section that would have changed the number of votes needed to confirm Governor’s appointments to boards and commissions from 34 to 30. However, all other amendments failed.

Senator Pam Jochum (D-Dubuque) offered an amendment to keep the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services in the Department of Education, instead of moving it to the Department of Workforce Development. It lost, with all Democrats voting for and all Republicans voting against (16-33).

Senator Tony Bisignano (D-Des Moines) tried to take out the changes to the Department for the Blind, leaving the Commission for the Blind in charge of hiring the department director. It also lost 18-31, but two Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the bill (Sen. Brad Zaun of Urbandale, and Sen. Tom Shipley of Nodaway).

You can watch debate on this bill here. You can skip ahead to the debate on amendments offered by Sen. Jochum (time marker 4:41:27) and Sen. Bisignano (time marker 5:51:30).

The Senate also passed the guardianship bill preferred by most advocates in the disability community, SF 295. The bill requires all guardians use the same detailed forms, regardless of whether they are a volunteer, family member or friend, or lawyer. The bill passed 47-0 and has been assigned to a subcommittee in the House Judiciary Committee (Rep. Bill Gustoff of Des Moines, Rep. Charlie Thomson of Charles City, and Rep. Sami Scheetz of Cedar Rapids). To stay alive, this bill must be voted out of committee by March 31.

The House moved its bill (HF 471) to rebalance the regional mental health and disability services (MHDS) boards to include more citizen and provider input. That bill is now on the Senate calendar ready for a final vote before sending it to the Governor. They unanimously passed (96-0) the non-medical switching bill (HF 626), which helps keep people stable on their medications by preventing insurers to switch them to a cheaper drug. The bill will now need to go through the Senate Commerce Committee.

There were very few new bills introduced this week, and most were just renumbering bills that were voted out of committee. The Bill Tracker is updated with these new numbers. One to note is HF 662, the House’s bill that reorganizes state government.

Bill Tracker

Budgeting Begins

Legislators are only allowed to spend 99% of the money collected by the state for that year, so they have to guess how much money they will have to spend. There is a group of three experts that meets four times a year to make these estimates so the state does not overspend. Iowa law also requires legislators to base their budgets on the lowest of two estimates – December and March.

The estimating group (called the Revenue Estimating Conference, or REC) met on Friday (March 10) and things are looking good. They believe the state will actually take in more money than they estimated in December.

That means legislators have the green light to build their budget for next year using the December estimates. That means legislators have about $9.6 billion to divide among the ten budget bills. The Governor's budget recommendation was below the top spending level, coming it at $8.5 billion. The state also has $854.4 million in unspent funds from the current year budget (they call this a "surplus" or "carry-forward").

The bottom line: legislators have plenty of money to spend on things that will help people access the home and community based services they need, and help improve wages for direct support professionals.

New Capitol Chat

This week we feature the Disability Awareness Month resolution. Watch legislators and advocates take part in this special day in the House and Senate.

Watch Capitol Snapshot

Sign Up for Capitol Chats

You can watch our Capitol Chats here.

Mar. 31

Apr. 28

Green chalkboard with Shout Out written in chalk, with text bubbles saying "you are amazing" and "brilliant"

Shout Out this week to Emma Bouza of Hawarden who requested the Disabilities Month resolution and to Representative Art Staed for making it happen in the House of Representatives! Emma also worked with her own legislators, Representative Tom Jeneary and Senator Jeff Taylor to get bipartisan support in both the House and Senate for the resolutions.

Also Shout Out to George Thompson of Des Moines for getting bipartisan support in the Senate by reaching out to his Senator Izaah Knox who sponsored the resolution in the Senate. Thank you to these advocates and legislators!

Go to Calendar

Iowa legislators still take time out of their weekends home to go to public forums or town halls. It's their time to meet the people they represent, share what they are doing at the State Capitol, and hear what people think that work.

You can find these on our calendar, and you can download the list for the next two weeks here.

Advocate Resources

Bill Tracker

Action Center

Calendar & Legislative Town Halls

Guide to the Iowa Legislature

Advocacy Toolkit

infoNET is the disability policy project of the Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council and its network of Iowans with Disabilities in Action.

Stay connected with us: ‌

This project is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $774,176 with 100 percent funding by ACL/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government.