Legislative Session reaches halfway point

This week marked the 50th day of the 100-day legislative session. The first funnel dead-line has passed and the second funnel is coming up soon. De-bate is picking up in both chambers as the House and Senate work to advance priori-ty legislation.

Here is an update on where House Republican priorities currently stand:

Child Care

HF 771: Expanding the child care tax credit to more families – Passed House in 2019

HFs 2593 and 2594: Incen-tivizing employers to offer and expand child care to their em-ployees – On debate calen-dar

HF 2424: Addressing the cliff effect to ease Iowans off of government assistance –On debate calendar

HFs 2270 and 2271: In-creasing child care assistance provider rates to increase ac-cess –On debate calendar

HF 2488: Creating a pub-lic-private partnership child care workforce matching grant pro-gram – On House calendar

HF 2595: Incentivizing developers to build high quali-ty and safe day care facilities – On debate calendar

Broadband

HF 2213: Extends the Io-wa Cell Siting Act to stream-line regulations and deploy 5G faster – On debate calen-dar

HF 2520: Establishes broadband expansion as an economic development tool and reduces installation costs for providers – On debate calen-dar

HF 2459: Empower Rural Iowa which will provide broadband grants and author-izes more accurate mapping – In Appropriations

HF 2575: Exempts broad-band grants from state income tax – On debate calendar

HF 2442: Creates a study on internet exchange points to establish Iowa as a Silicon Prairie – On debate calen-dar

Education

SF 2142: Increased invest-ment in general aid for K-12 schools by $85 million – Sent to the Governor

SF 2164: Additional $7.65 million in funding for rural school transportation costs – Signed by the Governor

SF 2164: Reducing per pupil inequity in the school funding formula by $10 per student ($5.8 million) – Signed by the Governor

HF 2532: Helping train teachers to deal with disruptive student behavior and make classrooms safe– In Appropria-tions

Health Care

HFs 2551 and 2553: Pre-scription drug transparency – On House calendar

HF 2138: Capping out-of-pocket insulin costs – On House calendar

HF 2383: Retaining Iowa health care professionals – Passed House

HF 2197: Exposes health care professionals-in-training to rural areas

– Passed House

HF 2192: Increased access to health care services through telehealth – On House calendar.

House and Senate Finalize K-12 Education Funding Pack-age

This week, the House and Senate finalized K-12 funding for the upcoming school year. Iowa’s schools will receive almost $100 million in new money for the 2020-21 school year, with additional resources specifically targeted towards critical needs like rural school transportation costs and per pupil equity.

The agreement breaks down as follows:

Supplemental State Aid: $85.57 million

Rural Transportation: $7.65 million

Per Pupil Equity: $5.8 million TOTAL: $99.02 million

Since 2011, investment in Iowa’s schools has grown to an all-time high of nearly $3.4 billion annually, an increase of almost $1 BILLION over the last decade. K-12 funding makes up around 43 percent of Iowa’s budget, making it the top spending priority each year. Under Republican leader-ship, school funding has never been cut, student achievement ranks among the best in the nation, class sizes are decreas-ing even with growing enroll-ment, and Iowa teacher pay is highly competitive when com-pared to other states.

With school funding set-tled, House Republicans will continue working on additional ways to improve Iowa’s educa-tion system for students, par-ents, and teachers. The Educa-tion Committee has been work-ing on bipartisan legislation to ensure the best learning envi-ronment for students by help-ing train teachers on strategies to deal with disruptive student behavior and make classrooms safe.

House Republicans will continue to prioritize Iowa’s schools and ensure our kids get a world-class education that prepares them for a career, college, and real life.

As always, please keep in touch. As legislation moves forward, feel free to send me comments, questions or feedback that you may have regarding issues before us in the House. I can be reached at linda.upmeyer@legis.iowa.gov or 515-281-3521.