Waiting Around on the Standings Bill

Lobbyists joke about what they'll be doing at the Capitol this week - we'll do some standing around, then there is that sitting around, then we'll try to predict when session will end. The last few days this hasn't been too far from the truth, but not without reason. Most people are waiting for the Standings Bill to appear from Senate chambers. Then the scene becomes hectic.

CSG will be looking for a few things to appear in the Standings Bill. One of those is the revived language from the Green Cleaning Bill, changed to suggest that school districts merely give preference to green cleaning products. We will also be looking for sections of language that will be bad for CSG clients - some of which may have been proposed as bills earlier in the session and defeated, like prevailing wage for one example. That's when the tough work will need to be done in a limited amount of time to get those items out of the Bill.

Some speculate we will see the Standings Bill come out yet tonight. Tomorrow is the more realistic probability.

Hard Work and Positive Message Key to Republican Victories

Senator Tim Kapucian, Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, and Representative Peter Cownie were the speakers at the Conservative Breakfast Club Tuesday morning. Attendees were asked to write their names down at the door for Department of Homeland Security records, joked Republican Party of Iowa Treasurer Darryl Kearney.

Senator Kapucian of Keystone led the group of speakers. He decided to run for office last year after being approached by former Senator John Putney who decided not to run for re-election. Kapucian lives and farms right where he was born and raised. In 1993 he served as the President of the Iowa Pork Producers Association. Like so many newly elected Republican legislators he contributes his successful senate bid to hard work and the positive Republican message he ran on.

Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey followed. He ran in 2006 because he did not think the Department of Agriculture was getting the attention it needed. In 2002 Iowa agricultural sales equaled $12 billion dollars. In 2008 sales increased to $20 billion making Iowa number two in the nation behind California. Secretary Northey pointed out that business and agriculture are clearly the industries of the state yet this administration’s focus has been on growing government and not prosperity. While emphasizing the need for a Republican governor and new leadership at the Capitol, he clearly stated that he like the position he was in and "was not making any announcements."

Representative Cownie ran for office because he wanted to see more young people stay in the state as Iowa’s population has become stagnant and growing older in recent years. He is one of about 9 children and is sad that only a few of them are left in Iowa. He says that if the jobs are here, our college grads will stay here and others will come back home. Cownie and his wife Mary, who was also his campaign manager, knocked on every door in his district and lit-dropped extensively. Although Obama won the district and a third-party libertarian opponent took 500 votes, Cownie still won through hard work and a positive message.

State Agencies: No Green-Cleaning Products for Schools

The Green Cleaning Bill HF823 – also one of McCarthy’s leadership bills – will not be going forward this year. State Agencies (Department of Public Health, Department of Education, and Department of Administrative Services) that would be responsible for overseeing the use green-cleaning products in public schools expressed concerns about money and resources required to implement the initiative.

The cost-benefit ratio would have been very high. School children and school staff across Iowa would no longer be subjected to toxic cleaning products, while State Agencies would merely be required the publish a list of green cleaning products on a state website.

While this bill was considered towards the end of the session, it is particularly unsettling that some in the Culver administration (which is supposed to be GREEN) did not embrace what is clearly a positive public policy goal.

We expect that this issue will be one of the first debated and passed next year.

Adjournment Update:

Democrat Leaders are indicating that they want to go home, but will struggle to do so without passing Governor Culver’s $750 million bonding bill.

Another impediment to session adjournment is Barack Obama’s visit to Newton on Wednesday which will inevitably take many Democrats away from the Statehouse.

It will come down to Thursday night when leaders will look at the what’s left on the schedule and determine if they can finish up over the weekend. If not, we’ll be back for more next week.

Thursday Observations

The bill calling for a biodiesel mandate passed out of the Senate Wednesday night with a vote of 31-19. Senate File 464 was sent to the House but is not yet on the debate calendar. Rumor is that the bill is DOA in the House.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Green Cleaning Bill, HF 823, was sent to a subcommittee of Ways & Means Wednesday. The subcommittee will consist of Representatives Donovan Olson (D-Boone), Marcie Frevert (D-Emmetsburg), and Chris Hagenow (R-Clive). An amendment by Representative Olson was approved in the committee specifying the Departments of Public Health and Administrative Services would implement the requirements.

While both houses are going home tonight, lobbyists and legislators today are facing the reality that we will be in session through the end of next week at a minimum.

Tonight the Drake Law Republican Club will be hosting their Spring Networking Social at Dos Rios from 5:30-7:00pm. Republican attorneys, legislators, and lobbyists are welcome to join Drake Law Republican students for appetizers and words of wisdom from Drake Law Graduate Governor Terry Branstad. Please come if you can!

No Debate on Federal Deductibility Tuesday

Federal deductibility was not debated in the House today although a couple hundred Iowans showed up to the Capitol to oppose it. House File 807 is on the debate calendar and debate was originally scheduled for 10:00 Tuesday Morning. No word yet when and if it will be brought up.

Some in the lobby suspect legislators will be going home next Wednesday. Usually a good sign is when legislators start packing up their desks, which has not been seen yet.

Still Bound by Session Timetable

There are only a few things the legislature must do each year, and one of them is to pass the budget. The legislature has not passed a budget yet this year, and will remain in session until it does. Rumors last week were that the session would end this week. It’s Monday and we are already looking towards next week.

We are still operating according to the Session Timetable. The second funnel deadline was last Friday and called for Senate bills to be reported out of House committees and House bills to be reported out of Senate committees. April 13 - 17 requires Senate consideration of only House bills and unfinished business, and House consideration of only Senate bills and unfinished business. It appears to be too late to amend the rules, but they may be suspended in order to speed up the process.

All bills besides the budget bill at this point are optional, and sometimes called the “pet projects” which have the support of various legislators or groups. These include the bills for Prevailing Wage, Ending Federal Deductibility, Collective Bargaining, Ending Right-to-Work, and Doctor Shopping.

As the lobby is well aware, no bill gets better the longer it sits around.

Ignition Interlock Systems of Iowa

Towards the end of legislative sessions decisions start to get made and issues begin to be resolved. It’s at this time people and groups find out how they are going to be impacted by various bills.
One of these groups is Ignition Interlock Systems of Iowa. This company makes ignition interlocks – a device installed in cars that requires the driver to breath into it and pass a breath-test for alcohol before the car’s ignition starts. This device is required for those convicted of Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) if they wish to continue driving.
The law previously stated, that after 100 days, a person convicted of their second OWI is eligible to get this device and drive again for the remainder of the time their license is revoked. This year, the federal law changed to allow the devise to be installed after just 45 days of zero driving. Studies showed that people were driving anyway, and this change makes roads safer by helping prevent them from driving drunk. Iowa attempted to change the law on their books, but made a crucial error in the drafting.
Those charged with an OWI violate a criminal as well as an administrative law. Both sections of the Iowa code needed to be amended to reflect the new 45 day requirement, but the amendment erred in only changing one of the sections. Without fixing this, courts will surely require folks to wait the full 100 days before they can get an ignition interlock device.
Thus, CSG has been recently employed by Ignition Interlock Systems of Iowa to make this fix. It is heavy lifting at the end of the session because the bill requires leadership approval – but something CSG can accomplish.

Green Cleaning Products for a Clean Green Iowa

A bill sponsored by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D-Des Moines) will arrive in the House from the bill drafters in the next day or two. Generally, the bill provides for public school districts and state buildings to use environmentally preferable – or green – cleaning products. A similar bill, House File 199, did not make it out of committee earlier this year.

The revised bill accomplishes several things:

1) Moves Iowa forward towards using environment and kid friendly cleaning
products;
2) Provide several easy avenues for implementation;
3) Achieves use of green cleaning products without increasing costs;
4) Has the support of legislative leaders who believe this is a positive move
for Iowa and is important enough to necessitate passage yet this session.

Specifically, the sections break down as follows:

Section 1: School Cleaning and Maintenance: Environmentally Preferable Cleaning Products

• Findings and Intent
o Children are vulnerable to and can be adversely affected by cleaning products
o The EPA estimates that human exposure to indoor pollution can be many times higher than out of doors
o Children, teachers, janitors, and other staff spend a significant amount of time in doors exposed to harmful cleaning products

• Use of Environmentally Preferable Cleaning Products
o Public school districts and state buildings will be required to use environmentally preferable cleaning products
o Existing cleaning products may be used up before green cleaning products are obtained

• Policy Guidelines and Specifications
o The Iowa Department of Public Health will maintain a list of approved cleaning products
o A cleaning product will be approved for use if it has been deemed environmentally preferable by one of several agencies including
- EPA’s Design for the Environment program,
- EcoLogo program administered by TerraChoice,
- Green Seal, or
- Alternative qualification by an accredited third-party verifying that the product meets certain recognized standards
o This bill does not preclude the use of disinfecting cleaners, sanitizers, or any other antimicrobial product when necessary to protect public health

Section 2: State Mandate Funding

• No additional state funding for cleaning products will be needed.

The Pot Simmers ... for now

The bill which would eliminate federal deductibility, HF 807, will not be coming up for debate today, and its future is uncertain. The companion bill, SF 468, came out in the Senate today.

House Leaders will not bring the bill up for debate unless they know for certain they have the votes, and right now it looks like the Democrat Six-Pack is holding strong in opposition. In addition, Governor Culver has said he is opposed to the bill if it is not revenue neutral. Probably a smart move since he promised not to increase taxes in his State of the State address at the beginning of the session, and this bill does just that.

On a different note, the Iowa Supreme Court will rule on the same sex marriage case, Varnum v. Brien, tomorrow. The case involves six same-sex Iowa couples who sued the Polk County Recorder in 2005 after the office denied them marriage licenses. A constitutional amendment would be required if the state is not happy with the outcome. No legislative reaction is expected this year as legislators predict they'll be headed home in the next week or two.