Gov. Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced today that the governor will be signing Executive Order 80, which will enact greater public participation in the administrative rules process.

The governor also signed Executive Order 79, which rescinded 12 previous executive orders.

By signing Executive Order 80, agencies will create stakeholder rulemaking groups consisting of individuals who can adequately represent the interests that will be significantly affecting by a draft rule proposal or subject matter.

Rulemaking authorities will now work with those who will be affected by new regulations, and they will be fully aware of the full consequences of each rule or regulation they look to put into effect.

“Public participation in the formulation of administrative rules will help our state to reform burdensome regulations and prevent overregulation or red tape, encouraging efficiency, economic growth and job creation,” said Branstad.

Once formed, the stakeholder groups will then notify the public to their meetings, receive public comment and input, and then make recommendations to the entity with rulemaking authority.

Reynolds notes that she and the governor visit all 99 counties every year, and conducted a rules and regulations tour with legislators in order to hear the concerns of small business owners and working families.

“What has become apparent in our travels is that public input is vitally important, but it is missing in a critical aspect of state government: our rules and regulations process,” said Reynolds. “Iowa government has a responsibility to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state of Iowa. We must enact regulations that achieve this goal as effectively and efficiently as possible.”

The governor added that this executive order is about injecting common-sense into the regulatory process.

“Our state will be well served by greater public participation and stakeholder input for regulation and administrative rules,” said Branstad. “It is our hope that by giving stakeholders a stake in the process, we can all work together to enact smart, better ways to administer rules and regulations.”

This now includes people killed as a result of friendly fire.

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Rep. Cecil Dolecheck of Mount Ayr: House District 24 (Challenger-Jane Jensen of Clarinda)
Rep. Joel Fry of Osceola: House District 27 (Challenger-James Demichelis Jr., of Chariton)
Rep. Kevin Koester of Ankeny: House District 38 (Challenger-Brett Nelson of Saylor Township)
Rep. Jarad Klein of Keota: House District 78 (Challenger-Priscilla Marlar of Wayland)
Rep. Tom Shaw of Laurens: House District 10 (Challenger-Maison Bleam of Rockwell City)

I will join Majority Leader Sen. Mike Gronstal on Iowa Press this week. You can tune in to IPTV at 7:30pm Friday or 12:00pm Sunday. You can also watch it online here http://www.iptv.org/iowapress/default.cfm

On the final day of session, each of the three leaders gives a speech to the House. Below is the text of my closing remarks.

I will begin by saying thank you to the members of the Eighty-Fourth General Assembly. Thank you for your commitment and service to the people of Iowa. Special thanks to the Eighteen of you choosing to retire. You will be missed not only by your friends and colleagues here at the Capitol, but moreover by the Iowans in the districts you’ve served over the years.

I want to specifically recognize the two members retiring from the House Republican Leadership team; Speaker Pro-Tem Jeff Kaufmann and Assistant Leader Steve Lukan. I personally want to thank each of you for your friendship and your service to our caucus. Your leadership will be missed. To the other members of the leadership team: Erik, Renee, Dave and Matt – I truly appreciate your input and advice. And last but not least, the Majority Leader – Linda Upmeyer. House Republicans appreciate everything you do. Your dedication and insight are invaluable and have not only made our caucus more determined, but made the Iowa House stronger.

I’d also like to recognize Leader McCarthy. I know I have said this before, but you truly have a difficult job as Minority Leader. During the past two years you have done a commendable job working in a bipartisan manner when you could and trying to keep your opposition civil when you could not, something Iowans deserve and expect.

Once again, thank you to the leadership staff: Josie, Angie, Terri, Tony and Matt. And, in my opinion, the best caucus staff in the building – the House Republican Caucus staff: Jeff, Lew, Lon, Brad, Jason, Kristi, Jill, Amanda, Louis and Dustin. Thank you for your hard work and the timely and reliable information you provide year in and year out.

Chief Clerk Smithson, thank you to you and your staff. The work you all do right here in front me and behind the scenes helps make this chamber operate efficiently.

A special thanks to LSA for all of your hard work. Especially the time and effort put in by all these past few weeks.

I also want to recognize and thank the gentleman to my right, the Speaker’s page Tom Biedenfeld. Tom you have taken good care of me throughout the year. I appreciate your dedication and have enjoyed our baseball conversations between votes and while the House is at ease.

And finally, a special thank you to Governor Terry Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds and their team for their resolve and unwavering leadership during these last two years.

The first day that the Eighty-Fourth General Assembly convened, I outlined to Iowans a set of goals this body would seek to achieve and principals we would follow during the course of conducting legislative business. Since that day, this body has remained focused on the issues important to Iowans and the business the people sent us here to do.
We have worked hard at putting Iowans back to work and reducing the size, scope and cost of state government.

The first action we took to put Iowans back to work was to provide Iowa’s business climate with some much needed certainty and stability. For too long, Iowa employers were reluctant to invest in their operations, preventing them from hiring and expanding. They were reluctant because they constantly threatened with job-killing legislation like the repeal of our Right to Work law and Open Scope Bargaining. House Republicans put those ideas in the rear-view mirror and moved forward.

Employers were reluctant to invest in Iowa’s workforce and economy because Iowa’s budget was unstable. State government was spending more than it took in and the threat of massive tax increases to correct the problem was real and imminent.

I can report to you today we have removed those fears and Iowa’s economy is rebounding and is headed in the right direction.

When Republicans took the majority in the House, more than 110,000 Iowans were unemployed. According to Iowa Workforce Development’s latest report, 87,000 Iowans are looking for work. That number, while still too high and worrisome, is a tangible sign of progress. It is also a reminder that we can and need to continue to do better.
In the last few days, we have had the opportunity to review the changes in the state budget over the last two sessions. Frankly, it really is quite remarkable. Normally a change in law is needed to alter the budget process. But this chamber has fundamentally changed the way state government budgets because we believed it was the right thing to do. In the past, legislators, including Republicans, underfunded previous commitments, spent more than the state was taking in and used one-time money for ongoing expenses. I’m proud to say those practices have ended.

When House Republicans took charge of the state budget in January 2011, Governor Culver had signed the four largest budgets in the state history, forced a $500 million property tax increase, borrowed over $800 million, and left a $900 million spending gap for Governor Branstad and the new legislature.

House Republicans have led the way towards a healthy and accountable state budget that has measurable results for the hardworking taxpayers of Iowa. We have turned a $900 million spending shortfall into $624 million in reserves, $300 million in ending balance and $90 million in the House Republican created Taxpayer Trust Fund. That $390 million should be returned to the taxpayers through broad-based tax relief and will be this body’s first order of business next year.

In Fiscal Year 2011 the state was spending 118% of total available general fund revenue. In Fiscal Year 2012, we reduced that to 93% of total available general fund revenue and in Fiscal Year 2013 it will be 95%.

In terms of on-going revenue, which as you might have heard is a far more important measurement for House Republicans, the state will be spending just 99% in Fiscal Year 2012 and 2013. In the future, we must remain committed to spending less than the state collects from the taxpayers.

Despite skepticism, we have, at a minimum, reduced the cost of state government by $360 million a combination of efficiencies and reprioritization.

Additionally, this General Assembly backfilled the intentional act of underfunding Iowa’s K through 12 education system to ensure property taxpayers were not saddled with that burden; and we honored our commitments to parents and students by funding previous commitments.
House Republicans see it as our duty to cut out waste in government spending so our state can be more efficient and effective. A better run state government means Iowans get to keep more of their own money. Over the last two years House Republicans have persistently tackled tax relief. We sent a 20% income tax reduction to the Senate. We sent four separate and different property tax relief bills across the Rotunda; and like most bills in this chamber all four proposals received bi-partisan support. Regrettably, we could not find common ground with the Senate on these ideas.

All Iowans deserve to see tax relief. It helps Iowa’s economy and puts people back to work. House Republicans will not be deterred or be distracted from this goal. We will be back next year continuing our fight for the hardworking taxpayers of Iowa.

When each of you walk out of here and return home you can say with pride that the House restored commonsense budgeting principles to state government while funding Iowans’ priorities including: education, public safety, healthcare and infrastructure.

In closing, I wish to thank my wife Cathy and each of our four children for their never ending support. Thank you to each of you for giving me the opportunity to serve as your Speaker for the last two years. It is an honor and privilege that I do not take lightly.

During session, each day I wake up thinking about how to move Iowa forward with the hard working taxpayers in mind. We have made progress for the taxpayers but our work is not done. We must continue to build upon the success of the last two years. Iowans deserve it. Thank you and God bless the great State of Iowa.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the House.

It is hard to fully describe the honor of serving in this building but it is not difficult to know who to thank. I think I speak for us all when I say thank you to our constituents. They put their trust in us and keep us focused on what is important. It is the people of Iowa that will always make this job worthwhile.

I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. You all give so much of yourselves to do this job. It is not easy taking time away from family, work and life. But you have all done that so the people in your district could be well represented.

Minority Leader McCarthy, your caucus and your staff deserve to be commended for their tireless work and their contribution. I am proud of the bipartisan spirit that can be found in much of the legislation we have done this year.

Thank you to all the people who keep this building running – day and night. You often work without recognition, but we appreciate all you do. Thank you to Tom, Katelyn and all the pages. I am so impressed with all of you and know you have a bright future.

A special thank you to our staff: Jeff, Lon, Jason, Amanda, Kristi, Lew, Louis, Brad, Dustin, Jill, Matt, Josie, Terri, Tony and Angie. You are simply the best at what you do.

When I was thinking about what I have learned over the last two sessions and what we have accomplished, I kept coming back to one thought: big things do not often happen all at once. A building is not merely placed on the corner of a street, rather it is built brick by brick. It is the culmination of many smaller contributions through which big things are done.

It is that idea which describes the work we have accomplished over these last two years. There is no magic bill to cure all woes, and NO… waiting for one to come is not what made the last two sessions run long. To effect change, you need to make a consistent effort to focus on your priorities and principles.

Over the last two sessions we have made a consistent effort to focus on delivering a more effective and efficient state government for the hardworking taxpayers of Iowa. First and foremost that was accomplished by delivering on our promise that we would live within our means, just like Iowans have to. We committed to not spend more than we took in, and we have stood strong.

We have made the budget process more transparent and accountable. We have dramatically reduced the number of “notwithstandings” in the budget. In fact, RIIF went from 98% “notwithstandings” to only 25%. That is significant progress, but clearly there is work yet to be done. Over the years, many things were moved off budget which made it hard to determine exactly how much the State was spending each year. We tackled that, not all at once, but each day as we worked through the budgets.

We have created stability in the budget by refusing to spend one-time money for ongoing expenses. Again, this took vigilance on a daily basis by Representative Raecker and his team. Old habits die hard, but they fought for it and the financial health of our government is better as a result. Nothing is harder on our communities or erodes the public confidence more than rollercoaster budgeting. Using stable funding sources ensures we keep the promises we make and creates certainty for Iowans.

It goes without saying that balancing a budget is hard work. Even harder is finding agreement on a budget when you have many cooks in the kitchen. An expedient choice to help resolve the budget in the past was to knowingly underfund the commitments we had made to Iowans in order to balance the budget or spend more in other areas.

That is precisely the situation we found ourselves in last year with K-12 funding. Schools were underfunded by $156 million, which placed an unfair burden on our school districts and the property taxpayers. To remedy this, we committed a historic amount of new funding to education last year. Intentionally underfunding known obligations to balance the budget is irresponsible and I am proud we kept our promise to avoid it.

Sometimes making a positive change and doing the right thing can also be the easy thing to do! We made a commitment to conducting our work in the light of day, which meant we would not debate in the middle of the night. Representative Cownie, what could be easier than NOT debating after midnight? Even if it was not convenient at times, it was the right thing to do.

We wanted Iowans to have the opportunity to be participants in this process. Part of that was making sure we were not working in the dead of night. Another part of that was providing for streaming video of floor activity. What a wonderful way to truly open the doors to the people’s House.

What I covered today is only a small sampling of the many positive contributions that have come over these last two years. When you add them up, you are looking at a substantive change in the culture of state government. We should be proud that we have held ourselves accountable to the commitments we made to Iowans. That is what they expect from us and it is what they deserve.

The progress is significant, but we should not lose sight that there is more to be done. We have to turn the cultural change over the last two years into a pattern of practice. We have to continue making the hardworking taxpayers of Iowa a priority. We have to keep working towards delivering a world class education to our children. We have to continue striving to deliver the most efficient and effective government in the nation. We absolutely must continue to ensure state government is aiding job creation, not impeding it.

That has been our focus. That will continue to be our mission.
I want to thank Governor Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Reynolds for their effort to be partners in our shared goals. Your leadership and the message you have carried across this state have been instrumental.

Thank you to the members of my caucus. I am humbled everyday by your hard work and the opportunity you have provided me. Thank you to the retirees for your service. You will be missed. I am proud that you will return home knowing you left our state in a better position and that you were able to make a difference.

Mr. Speaker, as always thank you for your leadership and your friendship. The 84th General Assembly has come to a close and we should be proud of the work that was done in this chamber.

In January, the lieutenant governor and I brought forward a bold agenda focused on the dual goals of job creation and transformational education reform. I want to thank the General Assembly for considering our priorities and for adopting a significant number of them to help move our state forward. [See list below.]

Legislation passed by this General Assembly will provide our Iowa Economic Development Authority with additional tools to help meet our administration’s ambitious goal to create 200,000 new jobs. We have made significant progress on that goal during this first year and a half and the High Quality Jobs Incentive Fund and Employee Stock Option Plan legislation will help accelerate those efforts.

I am also pleased that this General Assembly took a first important step toward our goal of transformational education reform. While these initial steps may be considered by some as small, our new early childhood literacy initiative, in particular, will have lasting effects on the lives of thousands of Iowa children and significantly improve their chances of future academic and career success. We also enhance teacher accountability by requiring annual reviews.

However, the 2012 session may be remembered as much for what failed to be accomplished as for what actually was accomplished. Despite the best efforts of my office and a bipartisan majority in the Iowa House, the inability of Senate Democrats to adopt serious property tax reform has put Iowa taxpayers in jeopardy of seeing significant property tax increases in the coming year.

The Senate failed to support legislation based on the framework I believe was agreed to as a roadmap to finding a compromise between my office, the House, and the Senate. They failed to pass a meaningful step forward in our goal to make Iowa’s tax system more competitive or assist with our critically needed job creation goals.

As a result, Iowa taxpayers face yet another year with property taxes that are scheduled to grow nearly $2 billion over the next eight years. This is absolutely unacceptable and Iowa voters will have an opportunity to resolve this impasse in November.

Lt. Governor Reynolds and I are proud to work with all members of the Iowa General Assembly and proud to serve our citizens each and every day. We will continue over the next seven and a half months of 2012 to travel the state, promote our ambitious agenda, and work aggressively toward the achievement of our four goals:

1. 200,000 new jobs for Iowans;
2. 25% increase in personal incomes;
3. Reduce the cost of government by 15%; and
4. Provide our children with the nation’s finest education.

As assistant leaders, Smith and Rogers will work with the leadership team to set the agenda for the House Republican caucus. Working directly with the Majority Leader and leadership team, the two will relay information to fellow representatives, while also serving as a point-person on key legislative issues

Both were first elected to the Iowa House in 2010.

“Reps. Smith and Rogers are valued assets to the House. They bring a great deal of insight and leadership to our caucus,” said House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer (R-Garner).

Smith and Rogers were elected by their Republican colleagues Tuesday. They join House Assistant Majority Leaders: Reps. Dave Deyoe (R-Nevada), Renee Schulte (R-Cedar Rapids), and Matt Windschitl (R-Missouri Valley).