Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen put together a time-line for the Prevailing Wage bill’s life the past week:

Thursday – February 19, 2009

9:16 a.m. House convenes with the expectation we will begin debating HF 333 in the morning. The Majority Leader tells me Rep. Olson will have a corrective amendment coming, they expect it around lunch time and we will begin debate then. We recess until 1 p.m.

1:00 p.m. Olson amendment has not arrived – we sit and wait.

7:56 p.m. Olson amendment finally arrives – Republicans go to caucus.

9:00 p.m. I inform the Speaker and Majority Leader that Republicans will not permit this bill to be passed in the middle of the night and we will be staying in caucus to work on amendments until the sun comes up.

10:00 p.m. Majority Leader agrees to start debate at noon on Friday if we agree to limit debate to five hours. We agree.

Friday

11:00 a.m. Republicans caucus for final discussions on bill. I asked the caucus to be thoughtful, respectful, and passionate – but win the debate. The final vote count is in doubt.

12:05 p.m. The House convenes.

12:15 p.m. Rumored the democrats now have 51 votes (exact number needed for passage).

12:18 p.m. Majority Leader calls up Price Fixing Act for debate with a end time and vote at 5:20 p.m.

12:20 p.m. Debate begins.

2:00 p.m. Begin debate on main Democrat amendment.

2:30 p.m. It’s rumored they are back to 50 votes.

3:30 p.m. Rep. Bailey (D) announces on floor he will vote “no” unless the bill gets changed.

Continue reading the timeline…

On Friday, the Iowa House took two votes regarding the E-verify program on the prevailing wage bill. According to the Department of Homeland Security:

“E-Verify is a voluntary program for all employers, with very limited exceptions. Companies can access E-Verify online and compare an employee’s Form I-9 information with over 444 million records in the SSA database, and more than 60 million records in Department of Homeland Security immigration databases. E-Verify is an essential tool for employers committed to maintaining a legal workforce, and the number of registered employers is growing by over 1,000 per week.”

Amendment H-1059 required any Iowa employer who refuses to use the federal E-verify system is not eligible for public assistance.

Amendment H-1060 direct the Iowa Department of Public Safety to study the development of a Iowa version of E-verify that could be used on a statewide basis.

Both Amendments failed to pass. You can link to the votes for them here, when they’re available to view online.

A new press release from Leader Kraig Paulsen:

67 hours after the Speaker of the House decided to leave the voting machine open, House File 333 has officially been defeated.

On Friday, lawmakers debated the bill for five hours. On the final vote, five Democrats joined Republicans in opposition to the bill. House Democrats’ took unprecedented measures to strong arm the organized labor bill through the Iowa House. When Democrats did not receive the number of votes they needed to pass the bill, they announced they would be leaving the voting machine open for the entire weekend.

Monday, the Speaker closed the machine and the bill failed with a final vote of 49 to 49.

“I’m pleased the will of Iowans triumphed and sank House File 333 which would have raised property taxes, hurt disaster victims, and put small town contractors out of business,” said House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen. “While Iowans were victorious today, it is my hope that we will not see any version of this bill in the future. Even amended, this bill will hurt Iowa’s economy and raise taxes. Republicans instead believe it’s now time we start focusing on how to put 80,000 Iowans back to work, how to energize our economy and how to cut government spending to balance our budgets.”

During the weekend, the voting machine shut down three times. House Republicans took turns maintaining a presence in the House, watching the voting machine.

The vote was open for:

Long after last night’s vote on the prevailing wage bill, the legislative vote machine timed out this morning, clearing the whole electronic voting board in the Iowa House of Representatives.

Democratic leadership was forced to re-enter the votes manually, re-opening the machine, which clearly was not constructed with the intention of staying open so long. Typically, the machine is closed immediately following a vote. House Speaker Pat Murphy, however, has kept the machine open, hoping someone will switch from a “no” vote.

“House Republicans continue to remain vigilant in this chamber, even if we outlast the voting machine itself,” said House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen. “Republicans believe this bill was rightly defeated, Iowa taxpayers agree, and now even the machine has said ‘enough.’ We hope the speaker will do the right thing, shut down voting and allow us to focus on other things – like how to revive Iowa’s economy, how to create new jobs and how to fix the state’s budget deficit.”

The vote was open for:

Democrats this evening decided that votes cast against the Prevailing Wage bill, House File 333, must not have been what the members intended. For what is the first time that anyone can remember, Democratic leadership decided to leave the vote open all weekend long, until Monday.

The vote total currently stands at 50 yes, 46 no and 4 absent. The no votes are comprised of all Republicans present and 5 Democrats: McKinley Bailey, Doris Kelley, Larry Marek, Dolores Mertz, and Brian Quirk. Democrat Geri Huser is one of the absent votes, as she is out of town for the weekend.

House Speaker Pat Murphy will be sitting and sleeping in the chair presiding over the House all weekend because leaving the vote open means that the House is still open.

The vote goes on as more than likely the Democratic leadership is doing everything they can to get the Democrats who voted no to change their mind.

To be continued…

Major General Ron Dardis addressed a joint session of the Iowa Legislature for the 6th and final time this morning, as he will retire as Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard. General Dardis’ retirement comes after nearly 43 years of service to the Iowa National Guard.

House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen issued a statement in response to Gen. Ron Dardis’ condition of the National Guard address:

“Gen. Dardis and the Iowa National Guard have shown great courage and leadership for our state and nation. House Republicans thank Gen. Dardis for his service and direction over the past several years.

We also thank the men and women who serve in the Guard and protect our state. We are grateful for their dedication and humbled by their sacrifices.”

The House also passed resolutions honoring Major General Dardis and Brigadier General Mark Zirkelbach for their service (House Resolution 12) and a resolution welcoming home Iowa National Guard units who were serving overseas (House Resolution 13). House Resolution 13 was sponsored by Republican Representatives Matt Windschitl, Jodi Tymeson, Jason Schultz, Dwayne Alons, and Steve Olson.

This morning on the floor the House passed House Joint Resolution 1.

House Joint Resolution 1 – HJR 1 establishes a Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation trust fund. The joint resolution credits the fund with an amount equal to the amount generated by a sales tax rate of three-eighths of 1 percent as may be imposed upon the retail sales price of tangible personal property and the furnishing of enumerated services sold in this state.

It passed the House 82-14 (bill information here)

This afternoon the House debating the following bills:

House File 45 – Suspension of Assistance During Commitment. HF 45 changes Iowa’s Medicaid law that would suspend a person’s Medicaid eligibility when they are placed in custody. Under current law, a person who is in custody of corrections or law enforcement has their Medicaid terminated as required by law. Once a person is released, it is difficult to re-establish eligibility for Medicaid and then these Iowans do not receive the mental health treatment they need.

Continue reading…

From this week’s House Republican Newsletter:

House Passes Disaster Relief Bill

On Tuesday evening the legislature passed HF 64 by a vote of 98-0. The bill appropriated $56 million to the flood relief victims and codified the establishment of the Rebuild Iowa Office. Some of the specifics of the bill are below.

Jumpstart Plus The legislature appropriated $24 million to the Jumpstart program while at the same time expanding the eligibillity of the program. The current program is designed to assist home owners making 100% of the area median average and landlords. The bill assists those individuals making up to 150% of the area median average however it then limits the grant size to $24,999.

The legislature also established a priority process for distribution of the funds.

Read more…

Yesterday House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha) issued the following statement in reaction to Gov. Culver’s condition of the state address:

“The first priority of Republicans is disaster relief and rebuilding Iowa’s economy. We’re excited to work with Democrats to swiftly write legislation that creates help for our small businesses to reopen and get families back in their homes.

The governor asked to send our state in to debt which Republicans remain skeptical of. Borrowing money after you’ve already spent too much is the exact cause of the national financial meltdown. Borrowing just because you can is not the way Iowans manage their budgets and neither should we.

We do appreciate the fact that the governor has dropped from his agenda the destructive and job-killing efforts to repeal Iowa’s right to work law and the over-reaching and harmful collective bargaining changes.”

Governor Culver addressed the Legislature today with his Condition of the State Address. The House Republicans respond:

• The first priority for Republicans is disaster relief and we’re excited to work with the governor and Democrats to swiftly write legislation that creates real help for our small businesses so they are able to open their doors faster, and for our families to help them get back in their homes and back to work.
• Republicans are skeptical of the governor’s request to borrow more money to spend on various projects. Borrowing money after you’ve already spent too much is the exact cause of the national financial meltdown.
• Republicans believe the governor and legislature should accept responsibility for creating most of the fiscal mess the state is experiencing. It is not the fault of President Bush, Congressional Democrats in Washington, greedy Wall Street bankers or the natural disasters. We must be clear—the state faces a $779 million shortfall – but when we left last May we had a $563 million shortfall. That shortfall was caused by a lack of discipline and a failure of duties with Iowans’ dollars.
• We cannot rely on the federal government to bail us out. It’s time to take responsibility for the share of the financial mess that is ours. Republicans will dive into budgets to find cost-saving measures and bring truth and transparency to state government.
• Republicans appreciate that Governor Culver has left out of his agenda plans to weaken Iowa’s Right to Work law and resurrect the flawed and troubling expansion of collective bargaining.

Click for more GOP response…