The Iowa General Assembly has officially adjourned for 2025. The following is a rundown of some of the good, the bad, and the ugly from the 2025 legislative session. This list is not comprehensive.
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
- 44% increase in funding for private school vouchers but just 2% increase for public schools (SF 167)
- Stripped Civil Rights from Iowans (SF 418)
- Requires public schools to provide false information to kids on pregnancy (SF 175)
- Ending Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in Iowa (HF 856)
- $1 billion in new tax breaks for corporations that layoff Iowa workers (SF 607)
- Make it easier to fire employees (HF 767)
- Make it harder for Iowans to vote (HF 954)
- Puts health care for 182,000 Iowans at risk (SF 615)
- Increased vaccine hesitancy and less protection for state’s youth (HF 299)
Bi-Partisan Bills Approved
- Ban cell phone usage in schools (HF 782)
- Expanding parental leave for adoptive parents & state employees (HF 889/HF 248)
- New tools to address human trafficking (HF 649)
- Protected landowner rights (HF 639)
- Expanded cancer and health care coverage for firefighters (HF 969)
- Hands-free driving (SF 22)
- Chronic absenteeism modifications (SF 277)
- Prohibiting the use of bots for ticket purchases (SF 146)
- Holding private health insurance plans accountable for prior authorizations (HF 303)
- Lead service lines disclosed at selling (HF 876)
- Easier access to hunt, fish, and gather ( SF 148, SF 253)
- Ability to combat bird flu outbreaks/animal disease faster (SF 632)
- Healthcare coverage for spouses and children of workers killed on the job (SF 565)
- Increased privacy protections for victims of domestic assault (HF 397)
- New protections for gift card fraud (SF 266)
- Provides recovery funding and strengthens protections against out-of-state predators during a natural disaster (SF 619)
- Cryptocurrency Fraud Transaction Protections (SF 449)
- Length of Service Award Program for volunteer first responders (HF 1002)
- Helping Iowans impacted by the opioid crisis (HF 1038)
- Pathway for former military police to become law enforcement (HF 901)
- $14 million for paraeducators’ pay (SF 660)
Good News: These GOP Bills Are Dead
- Teacher red tape and publishing lesson plans (HF 929)
- Prohibition of mRNA vaccines – almost all COVID vaccines (SF 360)
- Expanding exemptions to school vaccinations (SF 406)
- Disqualification from unemployment upon receiving severance (SSB 1110)
- Expands the sexual orientation instruction and survey ban to K-12 (HSB 84)
- 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 a mask (HF 25)
- Criminalizing homelessness (SSB 1195/ HSB 286)
- Gives the Governor a $100,000 pay raise (SF 544)
- First step to eliminate Social Security & Medicare (HJR 11)
- Ties the hands of DNR to acquire public land (SF 553)
- Taking away unemployment benefits for short-term workers (SF 466)
- Cuts funding to libraries based on affiliation (HF 880)
- Immunity for pesticide companies giving people cancer (SF 394)
- Conspiracy theory on chemicals in the air (HF 927)
- Politicization of district courts (SF 407)
- Requiring physicians to lie to their patients about abortion reversal that could potentially cause them to hemorrhage (HF 775)
- Overturn marriage equality (SCR 3)
- Allow unlicensed chaplain services in public schools (HF 884)
- State encouragement for elective high school courses on the Bible (SF 510/HF 845)
- Restricting STI vaccines from Iowa’s youth (SF 304/HF 384)
- Gadsden flag plate to raise money for the NRA (SF 488)
- Creates a new offense for smuggling persons that could criminalize nonprofits and religious organizations helping people (HF 572)
- Limit food options for hungry children (HF 970)