The government reorganization bill aims to create efficiencies and cut costs in many aspects of state government. One major reorganization aspect of the bills is the consolidation of most of the state’s information technology systems. The consolidation will save an estimated one million dollars in Fiscal Year 2011 with little disruption to the public.

Another provision of the bill directs that doctors can only write prescriptions for a maximum of seven days for any drug not on the Medicaid Preferred Drug List without first seeking approval. This would save approximately $117,000 of general fund monies. The bill also directs the state to create new means to aid in the identification of Medicaid fraud.

In another section, the bill prohibits DHS from accepting new applications to the Family Support Subsidy program. This program aids low-income families with mentally or emotionally disabled children. This is estimated to save the general fund about $355,000. The bill also directs DHS to cap the legal fees paid to families who adopt at $500. The savings is estimated to be about $145,800. The general fund will save $7.5 million with a new DAS centralized purchasing system and about $1.5 million with the closure of two prison work farms near Fort Madison.

The bill not only aims to save money, but some sections actually bring money into the general fund. Under the bill, the Department of Revenue can hire five full-time employees to aid in the collection of taxes owed to the state. This is estimated to bring in an additional $2.7 million to the general fund. Another way the bill makes more money for the state is through the lowering of the gambling setoff threshold. This is estimated to bring in $4.6 million for the general fund.

This is just a sampling of where the total savings come from, a more comprehensive spreadsheet is available from fiscal services. The amount of savings actually realized by Senate File 2088 will remain an estimate until a final version is agreed to by the House and Senate.

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.

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.

Make no mistake though, just like I said last year … if blame is continued to be misplaced, as Republicans believe it has in the past, I will continue to talk about the pork of the last three years – the 2,600 new state employees – the 17+% spending increases. Mr. Speaker, Republicans prefer to move on; I hope Democrats feel the same.

Last year in my opening day speech I called for increased truth and transparency in state government, vowed to stand up against tax increases, and pointed out the importance of reducing the cost of government. As we worked through the year, Republicans crafted legislation to do just that. While most of it was not supported at the time, these ideas are now being revered as a good plan.

Today, those three goals have not changed. House Republicans will continue our efforts in those areas and add a few more to the list.

During the interim we went back to our home districts, met with our constituents and developed several bold solutions for the state of Iowa. The only party to put forth an agenda, we focused on empowering families, reducing budgets, and strengthening education and healthcare, just to name a few. We will put our plan into action with legislation that will hopefully be given a better reception than our efforts last year.

We will also focus on creating an environment which is welcoming to employers and encourages them to invest in our workforce, passing an affordable and responsible budget and standing up to the creeping federal intrusion into the lives of Iowans.

When we convened last year, 80,000 Iowans were out of work. When we adjourned that number had jumped to over 100,000. Now it is somewhere around 115,000 Iowans out of work. House Republicans will offer concrete and realistic ideas to put Iowans back to work.

We’ve repeatedly been saying we must reduce spending and we must be fiscally conservative with Iowans’ tax dollars. While bloated budgets, increased spending and growing debt is now the norm—let me be very clear about where we stand—House Republicans will not support any budget that spends more money than it takes in. Balancing the budget is not good enough if it’s on the backs of the property taxpayer.

The taxpayer deserves a seat at the table and House Republicans will make sure that happens.

Republicans believe state government disregarded Iowans’ concerns last year. Pushing bills through at all hours of the night with little debate, removing citizens from the very building they pay for, budgets created behind closed doors, and we failed to permit them to have the final say on how marriage should be defined in Iowa.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.”

Mr. Speaker, it’s time to listen to the will of the people. House Republicans believe it’s time to return state government back to the hands of Iowans, allowing their voices to be heard…they deserve a seat at the table that they pay for.

Mr. Speaker, House Republicans stand ready to move Iowa forward. Mr. Speaker House Republicans are ready to go to work. Thank you.

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.

Leading is not coming in and pushing a button based on your party. Leading is listening to the will of the people and hearing the voices of the Iowans who put their faith in you.

I’m not convinced this House of Representatives listened throughout this session.

71 percent of Iowans opposed the massive and unprecedented borrowing proposal we passed in the last two days. Maybe that is why Iowans weren’t allowed to see the massive spending plan until it was about to be debated. Even aside from the secrecy which surrounded the formulation of this scheme, the really frustrating part is that Republicans believe we could have accomplished the same things without – WITHOUT – borrowing a single dime if we simply used the infrastructure fund for infrastructure.

On tax day, thousands gathered right outside this building saying, enough is enough, cut back. Yet, you voted for the largest amount of spending in the history of our state. Once again, I’m not sure that this House listened.

A few weeks ago the Iowa Supreme Court handed down their ruling striking down traditional marriage in Iowa. Iowans again came to this chamber and pleaded with this body to take action. Iowans want to have a chance to be heard on this issue– to vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as 1 man and 1 woman just as many promised we would do. House Republicans tried to make that happen but were circumvented by procedure. This is very regrettable.

Only 40 percent of Iowans supported the prevailing wage bill. They sent a deluge of messages voicing their hesitation, but we debated anyway. Later, an even more unpopular plan to take away Iowans’ largest tax deduction was brought to us. As a sea of red shirts packed the balconies to stand up against the raiding of their wallets. Instead of listening, they were removed from the chamber.

In January, every leader in this chamber promised Iowans that the Legislature would review each program and line item in the state budget to find waste and inefficiencies. Well, House Republicans followed through. We went through hundreds of pages of budget documents from state agencies. And what did we find? Projects that could be postponed, cars that didn’t need to be purchased, and money that could not be accounted for. We found $337 million in waste and inefficiencies and offered them as amendments. Virtually every one was rejected – in fact less than 1% of these savings were accepted.

The result? Historic levels of spending in the state of Iowa. This is astounding considering all Iowans have heard about are the painful budget cuts and program eliminations. It is counter-intuitive to know that state revenues are going down and then, fully armed with that knowledge, pass a budget that not only exceeds available revenue but is the largest budget Iowans have ever seen. After all of this spending I’m left to wonder – if more and more government spending revs up the economy, then why isn’t ours humming along?

Republicans said over and over that we were using a three part test to weigh each bill.

1. Does it grow Iowa’s economy?
2. Does it create jobs?
3. Does it encourage our employers to reinvest in our workforce?

Countless times this year, Republicans urged the majority party to use these same checks. To consider the choices everyday Iowans are making as they tighten their belts and reexamine their own household budgets to weather this economic storm. We asked how we were putting even one of 80,000 Iowans back to work.

I’m not convinced that this House was listening.

Mr. Speaker and ladies and gentlemen of the House, I will close with this thought: we have spent nearly all of our time this session doing one of two things: spending or borrowing.

As I think back over the last 100 days I think of several things: the most money spent in Iowa’s history, a partial response to flooding, saddling our children with years of debt, and a failure to act on the issue of marriage. While I see this as disappointing, I also see an open door of opportunity to take the time to again listen to Iowans and return next year and do the people’s work.

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.

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:

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.

SF 436 — A bill for an act relating to observers at satellite absentee voting stations. (Formerly SF 316.) By Local Government. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To SF 316 ]

SF 441 — A bill for an act relating to local emergency management by modifying provisions of the statewide mutual aid compact and by making changes to certain funding provisions. (Formerly SSB 1297.) By Local Government.

SF 445 — A bill for an act relating to teacher compensation by requiring school corporations to incorporate teacher compensation into individual salary schedules and by eliminating the educational excellence program. (Formerly SF 314.) By Education. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To SF 314 ]

HF 774 — A bill for an act relating to statutory corrections which may adjust language to reflect current practices, insert earlier omissions, delete redundancies and inaccuracies, delete temporary language, resolve inconsistencies and conflicts, update ongoing provisions, or remove ambiguities, and including effective and applicability date provisions. (Formerly HSB 263) By Judiciary. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To SF 449 ]

HF 779 — A bill for an act relating to matters under the purview of the department of transportation, including provisions for the administration of the department, driver licensing, vehicle regulation, the motor fuel tax formula, and the issuance of citations, establishing a cap on annual deposits to the TIME-21 fund, providing a penalty, and providing effective and retroactive applicability dates. (Formerly HSB 163) By Transportation. [SIMILAR/COMPANION To SF 419 ]

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.

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.

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.