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Highlights

The House and Senate have agreed on how much to spend in the budget.

Now budget subcommittees must agree on how to spend the money.

The Senate does not want to raise Medicaid mental health rates; the House does.

Legislators are still trying to limit property taxes, and each have a bill.

This is the last week legislators get staff and expenses paid.

It doesn't look like session will end this week, but maybe next week?

Join our Capitol Chat on Friday at 11 am to talk about this and more.

Budget Deal, Session Likely to Continue

Today marks the start of what should be the final week of the Iowa Legislative Session. Friday is the 110th day - the day legislators lose their staff and travel expenses. The Legislature frequently goes past its scheduled end date. It just takes a lot of time to pass those final budgets and cut the final deals on other priorities.

There are some promising signs that the end is near. On Friday, House and Senate leaders agreed on how much they will spend on each area of the budget. Budget subcommittee chairs will still have to work on their individual budgets, so that will take some time. You can see the budget agreement below.

The final agreement is $30 million above Governor’s level, but $62.5 million below what the House wanted to spend. That makes the House’s plan to increase Medicaid rates for mental health and substance use disorder treatment by $10 million for difficult.

Property tax relief will also need to be decided before the Legislature completes its work for the year. Legislators want to help Iowans who are seeing big increases in the value of their homes, and thus the amount of property taxes they will pay. That has motivated legislators to do something to stop taxes from going up too much in one year. The House and Senate disagree on how to make that happen. Each passed their own version of property tax relief, but time may run out before they can reach agreement.

Public Assistance Reform Awaits Governor's Signature

Two weeks ago, the Iowa Senate passed the “public assistance reform” bill (SF 494). It is often called the “SNAP Bill” because it requires new asset tests for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. An entire family must have less than $15,000 in assets (it does not count the value of a person’s home, retirement savings, first car, and part of the value of a second car).

It also requires Iowa Medicaid to run new database checks on people covered by Medicaid, to make sure they are not hiding assets or otherwise ineligible. Legislators believe that 2,800 people will lose their food assistance (SNAP) and another 8,000 will lose their Medicaid benefits because of this new law. You can read more about the estimated costs and savings here.

If you are concerned about this, you can send a message to the Governor here.

Other Bills to Watch

MH/DS Regions: The Iowa Senate has not scheduled debate on HF 471, which gives individuals with disabilities and providers more of a say on the boards of the mental health and disability services (MH/DS) regions. The bill also adds a new core service – community-based outpatient competency restoration. This creates an alternative to sending individuals to the state’s mental health institutes.

Iowa Caucus Changes: The House Ways & Means Committee surprised everyone with a bill (HF 716) last week. This requires anyone participating in a political party’s caucus to be registered with that party at least 70 days before the caucus. It also requires participation to be in person (so no remote or virtual participation option). At least one political party was working on an option to allow individuals with transportation challenges to participate remotely or virtually. This would not be allowed if HF 716 were to pass. The House has not yet voted on this. We do not yet know if the Senate is interested in this approach. The Iowa DD Council is registered against this bill because it limits the participation of Iowans with disabilities who very often face challenges with staff and transportation for an evening caucus.

Disruptive Student Removal: The fate of HF 604 is now in the hands of the Iowa Senate. This bill originally allowed teachers to remove “disruptive students” from a classroom. It required students removed three times in a semester to be expelled from school. The bill was amended and now creates a process for removing a student from a classroom that includes counseling and placement in an alternative learning environment (like a therapeutic classroom). For students who have a behavior intervention plan or individualized education plan (IEP), the school is required to call a meeting to discuss potential changes to the IEP or behavior plan to address the disruptive behaviors.

Seizure Ready Schools: Another bill is hung up in the Senate – HF 608, This requires a school to have a seizure action plan and trained staff to administer seizure medications and intervene when a student is having a seizure. This bill has come a long way and is one Senate vote away from being sent to the Governor. It’s not clear whether it can bridge this last hurdle this year. If you like this bill, you can send your Senators an email here.

Tell Congress: No Medicaid Cuts & No Work Requirements

On Wednesday, April 26, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a funding bill that would be devastating to people who receive Medicaid, including people with disabilities, their families, and the workers who support them.

The bill includes a whole new set of eligibility requirements for everyone on Medicaid to meet.

For millions of people, this bill would mean work requirements and complicated red tape to maintain services.

This bill could result in over $100 billion in cuts to Medicaid.

These requirements would apply to all Medicaid pathways, including Supplemental Security Income and home and community-based services waivers.

If this concerns you, now is the time to contact your members of Congress and urge them to oppose work requirements and cuts to Medicaid . Making cuts to Medicaid and adding more red tape would make it even harder for people to access the vital care they need to thrive. The Arc has a simple email tool below to make this advocacy easy!

Take Action Now!

Join the April Capitol Chat

This month's Capitol Chat will certainly be lively as we talk about what has passed, what is still in the works, budgets, and what the public assistance reform bill means to Iowans with disabilities.

Capitol Snapshot

The Iowa DD Council's Carlyn Crowe gives the highlights from week 15, and Amy Campbell unveils the newly agreed-to budget targets.

Watch the Snapshot

Blue two-toned Spanish-language version of the Guide to the Iowa Legislature, Guia de la Legislatura de Iowa.

The 2023-2024 Guide to the Iowa Legislature is now available in Spanish!

Get the Guide in Spanish

Get the Guide in English

Do you want to make communities more inclusive for people with disabilities? Do you value self-determination?

Apply to be member of the Iowa DD Council here.

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.

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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.