Iowa Senate News Release For Immediate Release: January 2, 2018
1:30 PM, Friday, Jan 5 Can Shed 4121 16th Ave SW Cedar Rapids
To gather information about how Iowa’s bottle deposit law is working, State Sen. Rob Hogg (D-Cedar Rapids), State Rep. Kirsten Running-Marquardt (D-Cedar Rapids), and other legislators will tour the Can Shed redemption center this Friday, January 5, at 1:30 p.m. at 4121 16th Ave SW in Cedar Rapids.
The Can Shed has 35 full-time employees and marked its 20th year of operation last year.
The news media is invited to join the 1:30 p.m. tour on Friday and is also welcome to participate in the discussion immediately afterwards.
“In states without a bottle deposit law, an average of only 28% of containers are recovered for recycling,” said Troy Willard, the Can Shed CEO. “We are proud that Iowa’s recovery rate is 86%.”
“Before Iowa repeals the bottle bill signed by Governor Bob Ray nearly 40 years ago, it is important for legislators and the public to know how it is actually working today,” said Senator Hogg.
“I want to make sure that any changes considered by the Legislature this year are responsible and don’t negatively impact Iowans, our small businesses, the environment, and our pocketbooks,” said Representative Running-Marquardt.
State of Iowa facing millions more in costs while kicking 44,000 children off health insurance
DES MOINES – Iowa’s outstanding health insurance for children is at risk due to the Congressional failure to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Without federal action, the state of Iowa faces millions more in costs even though 44,000 fewer children would be insured.
State Senator Nate Boulton of Des Moines, a board member for Iowa’s nationally praised hawk-i children’s health insurance program, called for “swift, firm, united action” after the organization’s Monday board meeting.
“This crisis affects families in every county of this state. This is an ‘all hands on deck’ moment for Iowa’s elected leaders,” said Boulton. “In January, the Legislature should immediately approve a resolution officially requesting that Congress reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Then, we should all be urging Governor Reynolds to travel to D.C. to make that case to the House, the Senate, and President Trump.”
On September 30th, Congress failed to reauthorize CHIP for the first time in the nearly 30 years of the program’s existence.
There are two components to hawk-i, Iowa’s version of CHIP. One covers the 16,000 Iowa kids enrolled in Medicaid expansion. They are the lucky ones in that they will continue to have health insurance for at least the next two years. However, without a federal reauthorization of CHIP funding, Iowa’s state budget will be required to cover the shortfall. That will mean additional costs of $10 to $15 million per year to Iowa’s already troubled state budget.
Things are much worse for the 44,000 Iowa children enrolled in Iowa’s nationally-recognized hawk-i program. Those children will lose their health insurance completely when funding runs out, something that is expected to happen this February.
“We need swift, firm, united action to prevent a children’s health care crisis in Iowa,” Boulton said. “It’s this simple: If CHIP isn’t reauthorized, 44,000 fewer children in our state will have access to the high quality health care hawk-i provides.”
Iowa Senate News Release For Immediate Release: December 15, 2017
DES MOINES — Iowa’s Democratic state legislators are asking Governor Kim Reynolds and Republican lawmakers to work together during the 2018 session to end Iowa’s failed Medicaid privatization experiment.
“We do our best work when we work in a bipartisan fashion” to expand access to affordable health care for many Iowans, Democratic legislators wrote in a letter emailed today to the Governor and every Republican lawmaker.
“For the past 20 months, constituents of all ages have been bombarding Governor Reynolds and Republican and Democratic legislators with real problems caused by Medicaid privatization,” Democrats wrote. “There is clear evidence that Iowans have died as a result of life-sustaining services being cut off to extremely vulnerable individuals.”
The letter also stresses the “financial jeopardy” that Medicaid privatization has imposed on hospitals, nursing homes and other Iowa health care providers, especially in Iowa’s small towns and rural areas.
Democratic lawmakers noted that “privatization is not saving money for Iowa’s taxpayers, and it is not resulting in healthier Iowans. Under Medicaid privatization, the state of Iowa keeps giving the private, out-of-state companies more and more money, while giving Iowa taxpayers less and less.”
Medicaid is a health care safety net that is administered by the states and funded through a federal-state partnership. Roughly 70 percent of Medicaid expenses are for the care of our very poor elderly and severely disabled Iowans. In 2015, the Branstad/Reynolds Administration announced that the state employees running the program would be replaced by for-profit Medicaid managers.
Despite widespread opposition and repeated delays, large, out-of-state companies took over care of the majority of Iowans receiving Medicaid services on April 1, 2016. As of today, three of the four companies initially hired to manage the program have abandoned the project. When AmeriHealth Caritas quit the state last month, the health care of 215,000 Iowans was disrupted.
Governor Reynolds has promised that more managed care organizations are being recruited to replace those that left.
In today’s letter, Democratic lawmakers propose a different approach: “When Connecticut realized its privatized Medicaid was not working, state leaders made the decision to go back to a publicly managed Medicaid system. Connecticut is now seeing much better results with their new model. They are saving money and improving care.”
The letter concludes with this plea:
“More than ever before, we all know that privatized Medicaid is not working for Iowa. For the health and safety of so many, will you work with us to put Iowans back in control of Medicaid? We can and should do better for Iowans. Watching our health care system collapse is not an option.”
Iowa Senate News Release For Immediate Release: December 11, 2017
Statement on the updated revenue estimates by Senator Joe Bolkcom,
Ranking Member of Senate Appropriations Committee
“Economic prosperity and fiscal responsibility will only return to Iowa if Governor Reynolds and Republican legislators start working in a bipartisan way to make smarter investments in Iowa workers and their families.
“With complete control of the Iowa Capitol, Statehouse Republicans adopted a my-way-or-the-highway approach to budget and policy decisions during the 2017 session. This meant that they ignored the voices of working Iowans who were begging Statehouse Republicans to keep their two biggest campaign promises: Raise family incomes by 25 percent and create 200,000 new Iowa jobs.
“Governor Reynolds and legislative Republicans continue to break those big promises and working Iowans – especially those in smaller towns and rural areas – are paying the price.
“Senate Democrats remain ready to work with legislative Republicans and the Governor on a mid-course correction that will restore fiscal stability to our state budget by investing in successful job-creation initiatives and taking a serious look at out-of-control spending on tax credits.”
(Des Moines) Today, two Iowa Statehouse leaders expressed concern that the 2018 legislative session could bring sudden, unnecessary changes to Iowa’s pension system. The two said the changes would harm Iowa public employees and the communities where they live.
“IPERS and Iowa’s other public pension plans are secure, strong, and sustainable. Some current legislative proposals to change IPERS could break the promise we have made to hard working Iowans since 1953,” said Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald. “The retirement contributions Iowa workers have made to these funds have been invested well and the benefits are reasonable. There is no need to make the type of changes Governor Reynolds and Senate Republicans are talking about.”
“Last year, Iowa made national news when state Republicans tore up long established collective bargaining laws in a little over a week,” said Senator Matt McCoy of Des Moines, a member of the Iowa Legislature’s Public Retirement Systems Committee and a nonvoting member of the IPERS Investment Board. “Legislation to blow up IPERS, Senate File 45, was introduced last year. It could be voted on during the 2018 session. Just last July, the Senate’s second ranking Republican, Senator Charles Schneider, brought in a right-wing think tank to tell Iowans to replace our successful, stable retirement systems like IPERS with more risky Wall Street-based schemes.”
Senate File 45 would begin to dismantle IPERS and other Iowa public retirement programs by preventing new Iowa workers from joining the programs on or after July 1, 2019. The existing retirement programs would be replaced by more risky defined contribution plans run by Wall Street traders instead of Iowa’s current non-profit managers.
In 2017, Governor Reynolds said several times that she supported a task force to propose changes to IPERS. She later dropped that idea but continued to express support for privatizing IPERS, including supporting the July meeting sponsored by Senator Schneider and the Reason Foundation
“Families, neighbors, and communities see the impact when money from IPERS is reinvested all throughout Iowa. These proposed changes, from the same legislators who earlier this year gutted collective bargaining rights for hardworking Iowans, could destabilize IPERS and negatively impact every community in Iowa,” said Treasurer Fitzgerald.
“Given how Republicans have been governing, every Iowan affected directly or indirectly by IPERS will be holding their breath until the 2018 session adjourns,” McCoy said.
On December 18, the Iowa Legislature’s “Public Retirement Systems Committee” will evaluates Iowa’s public retirement systems, including Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS), the Municipal Fire and Police Retirement System of Iowa (Iowa Code chapter 411), the Department of Public Safety Peace Officers’ Retirement System (PORS), and the Judicial Retirement System.
-end-
Links to news reports on Governor Reynolds’ support for changing Iowa’s public retirement systems
Branstad calls IPERS’ changes ‘prudent’ to shore up statewide pension fund
Des Moines Register, 3/27/17 www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/27/branstad-calls-ipers-changes-prudent-shore-up-statewide-pension-fund/99686464/
Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, who are both Republicans, have said that commitments already made to state and local government workers will be honored, but a state task force will review possible long-term changes to Iowa public employees’ pension programs. Among key changes that will be studied will be whether to offer a 401(k)-style plan.
Reynolds backs IPERS study, but task force is dropped
Des Moines Register, July 18, 2017 www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/07/18/reynolds-backs-ipers-study-but-task-force-dropped/487913001/
Reynolds noted that Sen. Charles Schneider, R-West Des Moines, is currently heading an interim committee’s study of Iowa’s public employees’ pension funds. The work is being conducted in cooperation with the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based libertarian think tank.
“I support his efforts in doing that,” Reynolds said.
State Senator Chaz Allen, D-Newton, will help shape the work of the Iowa Legislature in 2018 through his work on key Iowa Senate committees.
“Legislative committees are where much of the important work gets done,” Allen said. “Every day during session, I’ll be searching for ways to create good-paying jobs and strengthen Iowa’s economy.”
Under new committee assignments announced this week, Senator Allen was named Ranking Member of the Commerce Committee. He also serves on the Local Government and Veterans Affairs committees, and on the Economic Development Budget Subcommittee.
Senator Allen said he has done bipartisan work with State Senator Jake Chapman, R-Adel, chair of the Commerce Committee, in the past and looks forward to working with him on initiatives that create good Iowa jobs in the coming months.
The second year of the 87th General Assembly of the Iowa Legislature convenes Monday, January 8, 2018.
“I’m preparing by touching base with as many constituents as possible,” Allen said. “Anyone with ideas and concerns is encouraged to share them with me.”
Senator Allen represents the people of Senate District 15, which includes much of Jasper County and eastern Polk County.
Iowa Senate News Release For Immediate Release: November 29, 2017
DES MOINES – Citing continuing turmoil for Iowa’s Medicaid recipients, two key State Senators today called on Governor Kim Reynolds to give a break to more than 200,000 Medicaid recipients who were denied a choice of Medicaid providers.
In a letter delivered this afternoon, Sen. Amanda Ragan of Mason City and Sen. Liz Mathis of Hiawatha called on the Governor to grant an additional 30 days for former AmeriHealth members to choose either UnitedHealthcare or the fee-for-service system. A 30-day extension would address the concerns of Iowans who did not have a choice of managed care organizations, which directly affects which doctors, hospitals and other health care providers they can see.
“We are writing to you today to express our grave concerns about Medicaid,” the Senators wrote in their letter. “The loss of AmeriHealth Caritas and the inability of Amerigroup to take new members leaves too many Iowans without choice.”
The Senators also point out that federal law requires Medicaid beneficiaries get a choice of managed care plans.
“It is a fundamental, legal requirement to offer Medicaid beneficiaries a choice of managed care plans. It is completely unfair to offer the fee-for-service system to only those members that were able to make a choice before November 16,” the Senators stated. “Due to the lack of timely notice, more than 200,000 Iowans are being assigned to United Healthcare, regardless of their preference.
“In the name of fairness and choice, we are requesting that you grant an additional 30 days for former AmeriHealth members to choose either UnitedHealthcare or the fee-for-service system.”
Senator Ragan is Ranking Member of the Health & Human Services Budget. Senator Mathis is Ranking Member on the Human Resources Committee.
Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen responds to media reports about latest Senate Republican response to $1.75 million sexual harassment settlement:
“This is another partisan response to the serious problem of sexual harassment in the Iowa Capitol. Senator Dix, Senator Whitver and other Senate Republicans still have not apologized to Kirsten Anderson for the sexual harassment she experienced and they refuse to acknowledge that she was fired for being a whistleblower.
“Because the only information we have about this new proposal is coming from the news media, it is hard to assess whether this will make the Legislature a safe and welcoming environment for all employees, whether Iowa taxpayers will be protected in the future, and whether the Legislature will take steps necessary to protect the rights of those who raise concerns about harassment.”
Senate Democratic Leader Petersen’s request for the public release of the Iowa Senate Republican sexual harassment investigation.
In the wake of a $1.75 million settlement, Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen today called on the top two Senate Republicans leaders — Senate President Jack Whitver and Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix — to release to the public the findings of their internal investigation of sexual harassment.
Here is the text of Senator Petersen’s letter to Senator Dix:
Dear Senator Dix:
I am writing to request that the findings of the internal investigation by the Senate Republicans of sexual harassment be released to the public.
As you know, the Legislature received a black eye this summer and fall after a Polk County jury delivered a $2.2 million verdict against Senate Republicans stemming from a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former staffer Kirsten Anderson. (Subsequently, the Iowa Appeals Board approved a $1.75 million settlement.)
Since the taxpayers are on the hook for this $1.75 million settlement, the findings of this investigation should not be kept secret. Releasing the findings of your internal investigation would be a first step in making sure the Legislature is a safe and welcoming environment for all employees, protecting Iowa taxpayers, and protecting the rights of those who raise concerns about harassment.
Iowa Senate News Release State Senator Tod Bowman: 563-370-2422 For Immediate Release: November 16, 2017
State Senator Tod Bowman of Maquoketa and State Representative Andy McKean of Anamosa have scheduled listening posts in Jackson, Jones and Dubuque counties.
“One of my top priorities is to boost prosperity in our communities,” Bowman said. “We’re listening for ideas that will help build long-range growth through small business development, entrepreneurship, and practical education and job training,”
The legislators encourage people to bring their concerns and suggestions.
“We want to hear from constituents as we prepare for the start of the 2018 legislative session on January 8,” McKean said. “The best ideas often appear when we get together and listen to each other.”
All are invited to visit with the legislators at their listening posts scheduled for:
PRESTON: Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. at Old City Hall, 1 W Gillet, Preston
CASCADE: Saturday, Dec. 2, at 10 a.m. at the City Council Chambers, 320 1st Ave W, Cascade
WYOMING: Saturday, Dec. 16, at 10 a.m. at Memorial Hall, 141 W Main St, Wyoming
Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen responds to media reports about latest Senate Republican response to $1.75 million sexual harassment settlement: