Referred to as “second funnel,” April 5 was a key deadline for bills to have passed through both Senate and House committees. Any bill that does not meet that threshold is considered “dead,” or no longer viable, for the 2025 session. Here’s an update on where some key bills stand:
Senate Democrats: A Better Deal for Iowans
Economic Security and Lowering Costs for Iowa Families
- Provide paid, job-protected leave for both public and private sector employees (SF 109)
- Help Iowans afford childcare by expanding eligibility for state assistance (SF 353)
- Capping insulin cost at $25 a month (SF 209)
Housing Iowans Can Afford
- Empower neighborhood revitalization efforts (SF 144)
- Ease entry into home ownership (SF 505)
- Crack down on predatory practices that increase home prices for Iowa families (SF 414)
Prioritizing Iowa Workers
- Protect workers against wage theft (SF 147)
- Restore Iowa’s weakened unemployment system (SF 157)
- Restore public sector employees’ collective bargaining rights (SF 263)
Public Dollars for Public Schools
- Adequately fund our public schools (S-3002)
- Ensure private schools accepting vouchers are playing by the same accountability rules as public schools (SF 485)
Defending Reproductive Freedoms
Reynolds & GOP: Politics & Special Interests
- Low public school funding that reduces opportunities (SF 167)
- Stripped Civil Rights from Iowans (SF 418)
- Requires public schools to provide false information to kids on pregnancy (SF 175/HF 391)
- Allow unlicensed chaplain services in public schools (HF 884)
- State encouragement for elective high school courses on the Bible (SF 510/HF 845)
- Ending Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in Iowa (HF 856)
- Restricting STI vaccines from Iowa’s youth (SF 304/HF 384)
- More red tape for public union recertification elections (SF 472)
- $1 billion in new tax breaks for corporations at the expense of workers (SF 607/HF 980)
- Make it easier to fire employees (HF 767/SF 110)
- Voter Suppression (HF 954)
- Limit food options for hungry children (HF 970)
- Puts health care for 182,000 Iowans at risk (SF 615)
- Creates a new offense for smuggling persons that could criminalize nonprofits and religious organizations helping people (HF 572)
- Allow doctors to refuse treatment based on political beliefs (HF 571/SF 220)
- Gadsden flag plate to raise money for the NRA (SF 488)
Bi-Partisan Bills Moving Ahead
- Ban cell phone usage in schools (HF 782)
- Hands-free driving (SF 22, Signed by Governor)
- Expanded cancer and health care coverage for firefighters (HF 969)
- Helping individuals with disabilities to work and keep their healthcare (HF 905)
- Expanding parental leave for adoptive parents & state employees (HF 889/HF 248)
- New tools to address human trafficking (HF 649, HF 908)
- New college scholarship support for students with learning disabilities (SF 283/HF 271)
- Helps families buy more fruits and vegetables with Double Up Food Bucks (SF 232)
- Chronic absenteeism modifications (SF 277)
- Prohibiting the use of bots for ticket purchases (SF 146)
- Holding private health insurance plans accountable for prior authorizations (SF 231/HF 303)
- Lead service lines disclosed at selling (SF 425/HF 876)
- Easier access to hunt, fish, and gather (SF 148, SF 253)
- Ability to combat bird flu outbreaks/animal disease faster (SF 522)
- Health Care coverage for spouses and children of workers killed on the job (HF 913)
- Radon protections and free radon tests (HF 707)
- Increased privacy protections for victims of domestic assault (HF 397/SF 457)
- Expand services available in the Veterans Trust Fund (SF 617/HF 534)
- Income tax credit deductions for qualifying tech, job-training, and apprentice programs at accredited Iowa schools (SF 379)
- New protections for gift card fraud (SF 266)
- Strengthens protections for consumers against insurers withdrawing from the market and increasing costs (HF 911)
- Provides recovery funding and strengthens protections against out-of-state predators during a natural disaster (HF 982/SF 619)
- Cryptocurrency Fraud Transaction Protections (SF 449)
- Length of Service Award Program for volunteer first responders (HF 755/SF 165)
Good News: These GOP Bills Are Dead
- Immunity for pesticide companies giving people cancer (SF 394)
- Gives the Governor a $100,000 pay raise (SF 544)
- Teacher red tape and publishing lesson plans (HF 929)
- Funding diversion to charter schools affecting school district teacher salaries (HF 789)
- Politicization of district courts (SF 407)
- Prohibition of mRNA vaccines – almost all COVID vaccines (SF 360)
- Expanding exemptions to school vaccinations (SF 406)
- Make it harder to access vaccines (HF 712)
- Disqualification from unemployment upon receiving severance (SSB 1110)
- Taking away unemployment benefits for short-term workers (SF 466)
- Requiring physicians to lie to their patients about abortion reversal that could potentially cause them to hemorrhage (HF 775)
- Expands voucher application timeframe (HF 445)
- Expands the sexual orientation instruction and survey ban to K-12 (HSB 84)
- Classroom instructional materials to include the Gulf of America (HSB 97)
- Expands the ability to carry a gun into a school (HF 621)
- Repeals the voter-approved Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund (SJR 6)
- Increase criminal penalty if a person commits a crime while wearing mask (HF 25)
- Criminalizing homelessness (SSB 1195/ HSB 286)
- No disciplinary action for using student’s legal name and not preferred name (SF 8)
- First step to eliminate Social Security & Medicare (HJR 11)
- Ties the hands of DNR to acquire public land (SF 553)
- Home school deregulation and world language changes (HF 888)
- Cuts funding to libraries based on affiliation (HF 880)
- Vitamins and light therapeutics for at-risk students (HF 522)
- Conspiracy theory on chemicals in the air (HF 927)