Senate File 2088 “Government Reorganization” was passed 98-0 by the House this past Monday after countless amendments and two days of debate. The bill passed by the House is significantly different than the one passed by the Senate; making their reconciliation complicated. The version passed by the House is estimated to save $70.6 million to the state’s general fund and $55.7 million to other funds in Fiscal Year 2011.

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This afternoon House Republicans attempted to pull the following bills from committee and have them placed on the House calendar so they would not die in the funnel week.

The motion to pull them out failed on a party-line vote with Republicans voting for the motion and Democrats voting against.

HF 2262 – Claims sovereignty by the state of Iowa under the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

HF 2214 – Defends Iowans right to purchase or not to purchase private health care insurance. Additionally the Legislature cannot require Iowans to participate in any health care plan, or impose a penalty/fine for not participating.

HF 2057 – Under current law, a sheriff has no right to require an individual acquiring a permit to carry to provide a list of weapons they own and their serial numbers. However, this is exactly what is occurring in one county in the State. Before this becomes the standard in other counties, HF 2057 stops this practice and protects the constitutional rights of Iowans.

HF 2218 – Narrowly construes the rule making authority for state agencies.

HF 2219 – Extends the period of time for a regulatory analysis of an administrative rule from 32 to 70 days.

House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha) delivered opening remarks to the Iowa House of Representatives today. The following are his remarks, as prepared for delivery:

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

First I want to start by welcoming Representative Royd Chambers back to the House. Thank you for your service, Royd, we’re very happy to have you home.

Obviously we have a difficult year ahead of us. But rather than look at this as a problem I hope this body will choose to see opportunity. Opportunity for a stronger Iowa, opportunity to create an efficient and open state government. An opportunity to give the state back to the people.

Last year we heard a lot of blame being passed out. House Republicans don’t think this is helpful. Wasn’t it President Truman who said, “the buck stops here?” Instead of blaming our state’s troubles on someone else, House Republicans have taken action and are ready to take action again this year.

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House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha) delivered closing remarks to the Iowa House of Representatives today. The following are his remarks, as prepared for delivery:

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

First I would like to thank my caucus. It is indeed a great honor to stand for you and represent you. We are 43 strong and we made a difference – be proud of your efforts and successes. Next year we will stand with 44 members as we welcome our friend Rep. Royd Chambers back from serving our country in the Middle East. We look forward to serving with him in this chamber again. Thank you to my leadership team: Rod, Jodi, Jeff, and Steve for your input and efforts. And a special thank you to the Republican Whip, Linda Upmeyer for your inexhaustible energy and focus.

I would also like to thank each of you who take the time away from your families and your lives at home to come to Des Moines and serve the people of the great state of Iowa. Our task is often difficult and grueling, so I think each one of you deserves thanks for giving so much of your time and energy.

The staff of this building who work hard to keep bills moving, get amendments drafted, and make sure things are up and running each day. Thank you. Specifically, I would like to thank my staff. Thank you Jeff, Josie, Noreen, Lew, Lon, Brad, Ann, Kelly, Jason, Matt and Tony. We like to say, and it continues to be true, that we have the most informed staff in the building.

Mr. Speaker – Mr. Majority Leader, I also want to thank you. Obviously we have some profound differences on policy, but that did not prevent us from working together when possible for the betterment of Iowans. You committed to me that House Republicans would have opportunities to engage and affect legislation and you followed through on that commitment. I thank you for that.

Most notably we began working this session effectively to respond to last year’s disaster through the newly formed Rebuild Iowa Committee – while we can debate whether we did enough in the right areas – Iowa will be better because we worked together.

Republicans and Democrats worked together to write a disaster relief package after listening to the concerns of Iowans. Of that, we should all be proud.

Unfortunately, much of the cooperation ended there.

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House Republicans filed a Letter of Dissent with the Speaker of the House today after the passage of SF 376, a proposal to bond for money for projects in the state. Republicans state that the bill is unconstitutional, citing Article VII Section 2 of the Constitution of the State of Iowa, which states:

The state may contract debts to supply casual deficits or failures in revenues, or to meet expenses not otherwise provided for; but the aggregate amount of such debts, direct and contingent, whether contracted by virtue of one or more acts of the general assembly, or at different periods of time, shall never exceed the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and the money arising from the creation of such debts, shall be applied to the purpose for which it was obtained, or to repay the debts so contracted, and to no other purpose whatever.

SF 376 bonds for $475 million, which is clearly above the amount in Article VII.

To read the full letter, click here.

Yesterday House Republicans made two efforts to get a vote in the House on marriage but were stopped both times by the Majority party.

Republican Leader, Kraig Paulsen, brought up a motion to pull House Joint Resolution 6 out of committee and to the floor for debate, but was ruled out of order.

Later in the day Representative Christopher Rants filed an amendment to the Health and Human Services Budget bill that would have stripped the language and replaced with the language of House Joint Resolution 6. It was ruled non-germane, which was expected, and then a vote to suspend the rules and debate the marriage issue failed on a party-line vote.

To hear Rep. Rants floor speech on the issue, use the player below:

Today’s scheduled debate is set for around 5:30 pm. The following bills are on the schedule. Some have a bill analysis done for them. To see the analysis, click the bill number below. This schedule may change at any time and this post will be updated when possible.

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SF 254 — A bill for an act requiring the preparation of a report by the department of veterans affairs relating to the activities of county commissions of veteran affairs. (Formerly SSB 1005.) By Veterans Affairs. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To HF 326 ]

SF 291 — A bill for an act providing for the recognition and promotion of certified retirement communities. (Formerly SSB 1245.) By Local Government.

HF 522 — A bill for an act concerning preferential hiring treatment by government for veterans. (Formerly HSB 9) By Veterans Affairs. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To SF 186 ]

SF 360 — A bill for an act relating to the accreditation of school districts and nonpublic schools and the reorganization of school districts. (Formerly SSB 1101.) By Education.

SF 339 — A bill for an act relating to wastewater treatment and providing an effective date. (Formerly SSB 1234.) By Environment & Energy Independence.

See what else is on the debate schedule…

PUBLIC HEARING: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Location: House of Representatives Chamber, Capitol Building, Des Moines

Time: 7:30 pm-9:30 pm tonight.

If you can attend the public hearing at the State Capitol on Tuesday at please join us.

EMAIL AND PHONE CALLS
If you are not able to make it but still want to make a difference please call and email your elected officials today.

House Switchboard: (515) 281-3221

Senate Switchboard: (515) 281-3371

Email Lookup: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/aspx/Legislators/LegislatorInfo.aspx

LISTEN TO THE HEARING ONLINE
You can listen to the public debate online Tuesday night through this website http://www.legis.state.ia.us/Audio/Audio.html and click on house audio.

Today’s scheduled debate is set for around 2 pm this afternoon. The following bills are on the schedule. Some have a bill analysis done for them. To see the analysis, click the bill number below. This schedule may change at any time and this post will be updated when possible.

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SF 112 — A bill for an act providing for presentation of flags flown at half-staff over the state capitol in recognition of the death of a member of the armed forces of the United States while serving on active duty. By Johnson, Reynolds, Kapucian, et al.

SF 150 — A bill for an act relating to notice of claims and the statute of limitation period in an action involving a claim against a special charter city. (Formerly SSB 1083.) By Judiciary.

SF 187 — A bill for an act providing for the issuance of special deer hunting licenses to residents who are nonambulatory. (Formerly SSB 1174.) By Natural Resources.

SF 207 — A bill for an act relating to the Iowa finance authority by providing immunity for board members, providing administrative authority for the executive director, eliminating duties of the council on homelessness, defining projects under the bond bank program, and defining assets in, and providing for the use of moneys in, the housing trust fund. (Formerly SSB 1165.) By Economic Growth.

SF 253 — A bill for an act relating to the time allowed certain active duty military personnel to file a state income tax return and including a retroactive applicability date provision. (Formerly SF 85.) By Veterans Affairs.

SF 380 — A bill for an act relating to the practices and procedures of the department of public safety including school inspections, gaming floor or wagering area restrictions, interception of communications, and peace officers acting with federal agents, and providing penalties. (Formerly SSB 1253.) By Judiciary.

Today’s scheduled debate is set for around 3 pm this afternoon. The following bills are on the schedule. Most have a bill analysis done for them. To see the analysis, click the bill number below. This schedule may change at any time and this post will be updated when possible.

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HF 687 — A bill for an act relating to certain reporting requirements or actions required of the department of education, school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, and community colleges. (Formerly HSB 26) By Education.

HF 278 — A bill for an act requiring notification of occupancy rates for certain premises licensed to permit on-premises consumption of alcohol. By Ford.

HF 503 — A bill for an act concerning the definition of veteran. (Formerly HSB 65) By Veterans Affairs.

HF 703 — A bill for an act relating to the indicators used to assess the effectiveness of school ready children grants under the community empowerment initiative. (Formerly HF 357) By Education. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To HF 357 ]

HF 758 — A bill for an act relating to damages recoverable for the wrongful or negligent injury or death of a person. (Formerly HSB 172) By Judiciary.

HF 759 — A bill for an act requiring counties and cities with flood hazard areas within their boundaries to participate in the national flood insurance program. (Formerly HSB 181) By Rebuild Iowa and Disaster Recovery.

HF 776 — A bill for an act prohibiting the use of false caller identification for campaign purposes and providing penalties. (Formerly HF 37) By State Government. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To HF 37 ]

HF 801 — A bill for an act relating to the establishment of a searchable budget database website for the public to access the details of the expenditure of state tax revenues and a searchable tax rate database for the public to access the details of each tax rate for all taxing districts in the state. (Formerly HF 74) By State Government. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To HF 410, SF 102, HF 74 ]

HF 213 — A bill for an act relating to electrician licensure by modifying existing provisions and specifying new classifications. (Formerly HSB 52) By State Government. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To SF 159 ]

HF 732 — A bill for an act relating to the duties and operations of the department of education and local school boards. (Formerly HSB 22) By Education.