Record Number of Bills Considered during First Funnel Week

This week was packed with subcommittee and committee meetings because the first funnel deadline of Feb. 20 determines which bills survive for further consideration. With the exception of bills assigned to the Appropriations or Ways & Means Committees, bills that originated in the House had to pass through a House subcommittee and committee by Feb. 20 to remain eligible for floor debate.

The Iowa House of Representatives debated and passed one bill this week. After much negotiating, the final agreed-upon bill set Supplemental State Aid (SSA) for K-12 schools at 2%. This amounts to $8,148 per student, which is $160 more than the last school year.



The bill we passed also makes changes to the enrollment count process to ensure schools are funded accurately based on their student numbers and shifts the funding source for the budget guarantee to the state. House Republicans also secured $7 of the $14 million we proposed for paraprofessional pay and will continue to seek the remaining $7 million in appropriations negotiations.

Supplemental State Aid is one component of school funding. Local, state and federal governments all provide tax dollars for K-12 school districts in Iowa. The total amount of taxpayer funding in the 2023-2024 school year for public schools was about $11.6 billion.

Committee Action



Agriculture

A major farm expenditure is the repair of agricultural equipment. Farmers say their repair costs have skyrocketed in recent years, so they have asked their government to provide more freedom in the ability to repair their own equipment. As farm equipment has become more technologically advanced, some companies have retained information essential to repairing farm equipment. Two bills were passed by the House Agriculture Committee this week, HSB 751 (Right to Repair) and HF 2529 (Right to Repair for Diesel Exhaust Fluid DEF). The bills generally provide that original farm equipment manufacturers must make the diagnostic and repair information, including technical updates and software updates, in the same manner that the manufacturer makes that information available to authorized repair providers.

This week the House Ag Committee also passed HSB 745. This bill mirrors Division V of the grain indemnity portion of the Iowa Farm Act to address an unintended consequence of the grain indemnity fund bill that we passed in 2025. Twelve Iowa retailers surrendered their grain dealer's license between July 1 and December 31, 2025, due to the high cost of full unqualified audits. Before the grain indemnity bill passed last session, full unqualified audits were not required for small facilities. This bill reverts to the law before 2025. The Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship can obtain auditing information from any grain-purchasing small business and request supplemental information.



HF 2444 is an act providing for the sale and distribution of certain foods pertaining to Iowa's farm-to-table events and cottage food industry. I managed this bill through committee. The goal of the bill is to make it easier for local farmers to host farm-to-table events by creating a special-use permit. This bill also expands market opportunities for raw milk producers. Raw milk producers would be able to sell milk in their own on-farm store if this bill passes.

Commerce

Many Commerce Committee bills survived the first funnel this week, but I will share highlights for three:

• HF 2193 prohibits life, disability, and long-term care insurance from limiting coverage for living organ donors. I was happy to serve on this subcommittee.

• HF 2033 requires pharmacies to refer visually impaired individuals to pharmacies with accessible labels starting in January.

• HSB 692 makes it clear that eminent domain cannot be used for battery storage, solar, or wind. It establishes statewide siting standards for these renewable energy facilities, but it allows local authorities to maintain additional standards if they notify property taxpayers of lost revenue with a public hearing.

Economic Growth and Technology

This week four bills survived the first funnel in the Economic Growth and Technology Committee:

• HSB 728 establishes four new programs to be administered by the IEDA: interactive digital entertainment program, game studio investment matching program, game industry fellowship program, and game studio grant program.

• HF 2528 requires the workforce development board to establish a comprehensive initiative to address the state’s cyber and artificial intelligence workforce needs. The bill also requires the state board of education to oversee the implementation of the curriculum from kindergarten through higher education. In addition, the Department of Education must develop and implement a statewide community education initiative for cyber and artificial intelligence awareness.

• HSB 635 establishes ownership of the output of artificial intelligence and of trained artificial intelligence. Basically, it provides that if you own what you input into AI, you own the output unless a contract or terms and conditions state otherwise.

• HF 2312 establishes an affordable housing task force to identify state and local regulatory barriers that contribute to the cost of affordable housing and to examine the corresponding public benefit of such regulations relative to their impact on housing costs.