A number of Republican Representatives remain concerned with the State’s system for issuing permits to citizens who wish to arm themselves. Current law provides deference to local sheriffs who may issue permits to carry to those who qualify. In some jurisdictions in the state, certain sheriffs under no circumstance issue permits.

It is that refusal to issue permits to qualified individuals that has Republicans looking for ways to improve the law. As it stands now, there are entire counties where residents have no ability to acquire a permit to carry because their sheriff denies all applications. This includes members of the armed forces and even retired police officers. The first step considered necessary by many is to change current language that says a sheriff “may” issue a permit to qualified individuals, to “shall” issue permits to them.

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Over recent years, the Legislature and law enforcement have been remarkably successful in tackling the Methamphetamine problem in the state. Much of this has been attributed to limiting the purchases of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient.

In fact, this year the legislature ratcheted up restrictions on the purchase of pseudoephedrine by approving an electronic system to track purchases of the cold medicine. This will help prevent so called “smurfing” or driving from store to store to purchase small amounts of pseudoephedrine.

The results of recent efforts are clear. In 2004, law enforcement officials reported a high of 1,500 clandestine methamphetamine laboratories. By 2007, that number dropped to 178 laboratories, an 88% decrease in labs. But this progress is threatened by a new and easy manufacturing process.

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The Iowa State Patrol has launched a special enforcement program for each Saturday in the Month of June, dubbed “Safe Saturdays”.

Each Saturday in June, the State Patrol will activate entire districts from the hours of 5:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. All uniformed officers, regardless of rank, will participate in the program. This will increase the active staff level on those evening anywhere from 40% to 50%.

The impetus for such an aggressive increase in enforcement is the State Patrol’s recognition that June is one of the deadliest months on Iowa highways and a large percentage of fatal accidents occur on Saturday nights.

According to the State Patrol, per mile driven, a driver in Iowa is three times more likely to be killed when driving at night..

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As the House adjourned for the 1st session of the 83rd General Assembly, the House Republican Research Staff put together an end of session wrap-up of notable bills in all committees.

2009 End of Session Wrap-up

From this week’s House Republican Newsletter:

Bill Increases Regulation on Dog Breeders

This week, the Public Safety committee passed a bill that increases the regulations for dog breeders who are licensed through the USDA.

HF 30 aims to allow state inspectors into federally licensed and regulated USDA dog breeding facilities. Currently, the state and federal government only inspect the facilities that they license. If there is a problem at a state licensed facility, IDALS is the department who would respond. If there is a problem at a federally licensed facility, the USDA handles it.

For both facilities, chapter 717B of the Iowa Code gives local law enforcement the authority to enter facilities in response to animal abuse and neglect.

The impetus for HF 30 is the claim that the USDA is not doing an adequate job inspecting their facilities which allows for bad actors to escape punishment. Claiming that the remedies available through local law enforcement and the Tom Vilsack run USDA are insufficient, the bill supporters seek to allow state enforcement.

If HF 30 becomes law, an interesting situation will be created. You will have federally licensed and regulated facilities now subject to inspection by the state. But what regulations are to be enforced on one of these facilities when a state inspector shows up?

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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.

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One of the most important issues the Legislature will debate during the 2009 session is implementation of the federal Adam Walsh Act and tougher penalties for sex offenders.

One of the most controversial provisions in the bill would require some Iowa juveniles as young as 14 years to be on the sex offender registry, with their photo, address and crime committed available for public inspection. But it would only be for certain serious sex crimes such as those involving force. Currently, Iowa judges have the option of waiving registry listing for any youth up to age 17 for any sex crime.

Some of the opponents of sex offender laws, like the ACLU, do not want the state to comply with the law. The problem with that is two-fold. First, if the state does not comply we will lose $450,000 of federal money for drug task forces and overtime for law enforcement officers. Second, non-compliance would send the signal to sex offenders that Iowa is a safe haven. Attracting sex offenders to the state is not a responsible way to increase the state’s population growth.

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An article in today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette (linked here) draws attention to the problem of identity theft in regards to undocumented workers. Also linked are two votes the House took on this issue. Republicans in the House attempted to pass an amendment that specifically punishes the individuals who make the false identification documents and those who arrange the meeting buyer of the fake ID’s and the seller of the fake ID’s. Democrats voted it down on a party line vote. Then, six days later, flipped and voted for the same Republican amendment. Democrats will have to explain why they voted on both sides of the exact same amendment. Republicans supported it both times.

Vote 1 on H-8453: House Journal Page 1179

Vote 2 on H-8490: House Journal Page 1296

A Des Moines Register article yesterday on the raid of a Postville plant stated that “as many as three-fourths of the company’s workers at the end of last year were using fraudulent Social Security numbers” (Link).

Amendment H-8670 to Senate File 2700 by Tom Sands would have required the Department of Revenue to notify Iowans when it is learned that someone else is using their Social Security numbers. The amendment was voted down on the floor. Below is the vote tally to suspend the rules to consider amendment H-8670 (Link). Republicans are bolded:

The ayes were, 45:
Alons, Anderson, Baudler, Boal, Chambers, Clute, De Boef, Deyoe, Dolecheck, Drake, Forristall, Gayman, Gipp, Granzow, Grassley, Greiner, Heaton, Hoffman, Horbach, Huseman, Jacobs, Kaufmann, Lukan, May, Miller, L., Olson, S., Palmer, Paulsen, Pettengill, Raecker, Rants, Rasmussen, Rayhons, Sands, Schickel, Soderberg, Struyk, Tjepkes, Tymeson, Upmeyer, Van Fossen, Watts, Wiencek, Windschitl, Worthan

The nays were, 50:

Abdul-Samad, Bailey, Bell, Berry, Bukta, Cohoon, Dandekar, Davitt, Foege, Ford, Frevert, Gaskill, Heddens, Hunter, Jacoby, Jochum, Kelley, Kressig, Kuhn, Lensing, Lykam, Mascher, McCarthy, Mertz, Miller, H., Murphy, Spkr., Oldson, Olson, D., Olson, R., Olson, T., Petersen, Quirk, Reichert, Schueller, Shomshor, Smith, Staed, Swaim, Taylor, D., Taylor, T., Thomas, Wendt, Wenthe, Wessel-Kroeschell, Whitaker, Whitead, Winckler, Wise, Zirkelbach, Reasoner

Absent or not voting, 5: Arnold, Jacoby, Roberts, Tomenga, Van Engelenhoven

(DES MOINES) – ”In a press conference this morning, Republican Reps. Steve Lukan (New Vienna), Lance Horbach (Tama) and Dave Tjepkes (Gowrie) presented a plan for Iowa’s prison system and overall public safety.

According to the representatives, there are five key areas in the plan to ensure Iowans are safe from criminals but also keep the taxpayers in mind.

“We feel that Iowans safety is of utmost importance and necessity,” said Rep. Lukan. “It would be irresponsible of the Legislature to raid the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund at a time when there are so many infrastructure needs, including new prison facilities. If the $90 million was left in the RIIF, all prison projects could be funded within three fiscal years.”

Full Press Release Here