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The 2024 legislative session is officially over. State lawmakers gaveled out shortly before 4:30 a.m. on Saturday after working overnight Friday.
In the session’s final hours, lawmakers set the state’s $8.9 billion budget. They also added a few pieces of policy into budget bills including a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion at Iowa’s three public universities and passed an income tax cut that will lower the income tax rate to a flat 3.8% next year.
State lawmakers spent significant time over the past few months debating how to change the state’s special education system. After months of protests and negotiations between the House, Senate and governor’s office, they approved an AEA reform plan that included pay raises for starting and veteran teachers as well as paraeducators and other support staff.
They also advanced a wide range of legislation including changes to Iowa’s mental health system, new immigration enforcement rules and allowing teachers and school staff to carry guns at school.
AEA reform: HF 2612 shifts some funding from AEAs to school districts. Starting in the fall of 2025, school districts would receive 10% of special education funding and 100% of general education and media services funding.
The bill also shifts oversight and authority over AEAs from local boards to the director of the Iowa Department of Education and boosts minimum starting teacher pay to $50,000 in year two.
Arming school staff: HF 2586 creates a new weapons permit that would allow school employees to carry guns or weapons at school. Permitted employees would have to pass a background check and attend at least five training courses.
The bill would also require school districts of at least 8,000 students to hire at least one school resource officer unless their school board votes to opt out of that requirement.
Social Studies review, curriculum changes: HF 2545 would require the director of the state Department of Education to review Iowa’s social studies curriculum and recommend revisions. It also requires the Iowa Board of Education to review Iowa’s social studies standards to ensure all Iowa history classes in all grade levels teach a list of concepts specified in the bill including certain wars, battles, historical documents and government structures.
Pregnancy education: HF 2617 would have required middle and high school students to watch a video that is at least three minutes long and depicts the development of all organs inside the womb. Students would also be required to view an animation that visualizes every stage of development of human life from fertilization to birth.
Social media education: HF 2546 would have required schools to educate both parents and students about the dangers of social media. The bill also would have required pornography websites to verify users are over the age of 18 before allowing access to their sites.
Blocking preferred pronoun penalties: HF 2396 would have allowed students or school staff to address individuals by the name or pronouns on their birth certificate, instead of their preferred name or pronouns, without facing penalties.
Which bills have been signed into law?
More Options for Maternal Support (MOMS) program changes: SF 2252 allows the Iowa Department of Health and Human services to administer state-funded pregnancy resource centers. The centers usually discourage abortion and offer other resources for free.
Last year, Iowa Republicans approved $2 million in new funding for the MOMS program but the state hasn’t been able to find a qualified Iowa nonprofit to oversee the program. The administrative changes in SF 2252 will allow state-funded centers to receive that new funding.
Behavior health restructuring: HF 2673 would consolidate the state’s 32 mental health and substance abuse regions into seven unified behavioral health districts. The new districts would be live and fully operational by July 2025.
Each district would have a local advisory board. The state would implement performance measures, define district boundaries and decide what services each district would be required to provide.
Biomarker testing: HF 2668 would require insurance companies to cover biomarking testing. The testing is used to identify diseases including cancer, preeclampsia, Alzheimer’s and rheumatoid arthritis. Results allow doctors to target treatments for more effective and efficient care.
Post-partum Medicaid coverage: SF 2251 expands post-partum Medicaid coverage from two months to one year and limits who’s eligible for that coverage.
Which bills failed?
Defining gender identity: HF 2389 would have defined “male” and “female” in Iowa code based on a person’s biological reproductive system. It also would have required Iowans to only use state facilities, including restrooms, locker rooms and domestic violence shelters, that match their sex at birth. After receiving a gender transition procedure, transgender Iowans seeking to update their birth certificate would have been required to have both male and female listed on the document.
Penalties for wrongful death of an unborn person: HF 2575 would have made it a Class A felony, punishable by life in prison without parole, to cause the death of an unborn person. The bill defined an “unborn person” as a human “individual organism” from “fertilization to live birth.” Some raised concerns that the bill could threaten the availability of in vitro fertilization treatments in Iowa.
Over-the-counter birth control: HF 2584 would have made birth control available at a pharmacy without a prescription.
Religious freedom: SF 2095 requires state and local governments to prove they have a “compelling interest” before they can restrict a person’s constitutional right to religious freedom.
Gender balance repeal: SF 2096 repeals the previous requirement all state and local boards and commissions must have an equal number of men and women serving in positions.
Foreign land ownership restrictions: SF 2204 gives the state attorney general more oversight of foreign land ownership, including the power to subpoena foreign landowners for financial records. It also gives the attorney general more resources to investigate potential violations of foreign farmland owner restrictions.
Guaranteed income programs: HF 2319 would ban cities and counties from implementing guaranteed income programs. Under the bill, local governments that don’t comply could face penalties and all existing programs would be forced to end by Jan. 1, 2025.
Traffic camera regulations: HF 2681 would prevent any new cameras from going up in the next two years. After that, the bill would require cities and counties to request a permit from the Iowa DOT to install them.
Any city with a traffic camera would also have to submit an annual report proving it’s helping deter speeding. It also prevents cities with less than 20,000 residents to use traffic cameras to issue tickets.
THC regulation: HF 2605 would cap THC at four milligrams per serving and 10 milligrams per container if it were to become law. It would also make it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to consume or purchase a consumable hemp product.
Election law changes: HF 2610 would have banned ballot drop boxes and required voters to get their absentee ballots to the county auditor’s offices the day before the election in order for their ballot to be counted.
Fentanyl murder: HF 2576 would have increased penalties for providing or delivering fentanyl that results in someone’s death. The bill would classify the crime as a Class A felony, punishable by life in prison without possibility of parole.
Private state audits: SF 2311 would have allowed private CPA firms to audit state agencies instead of the state auditor’s office.
Parking meters: HF 2601 would have made sure that if someone has already paid for a parking spot but doesn’t use it for the entire time, the next driver wouldn’t have to pay for the spot until the time runs out. Parking meters, pay stations and apps would have had to display the remaining time for each parking spot.
Eminent domain: HF 2522 would have allowed landowners to challenge eminent domain requests, giving state lawmakers the ability to pause carbon dioxide pipeline permit proceedings.
Which bills have been signed into law?
Illegal re-entry: SF 2340 makes it illegal for someone to be in Iowa if they have previously been denied entry to the United States or been deported from the country. It would also give the state permission to send an undocumented immigrant back to the country they migrated from.
Which bills failed?
E-verify immigration system: SF 108 would have banned Iowa businesses from knowingly employing undocumented immigrants. It would have required Iowa employers receiving an economic development incentive from a state government entity to register with the federal e-verify program.
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