March 5, 2004
In This Edition:
The Field Gets Smaller
What’s Ahead?
HAVA Clears First Hurdle!
State Budget News
Other Capitol News
Bills Still Alive
Dead Bills
Important Dates
Advocacy Toolkit
InfoNet Contacts
/ Please Note: The contact information for InfoNet has changed from last year. If you need to change your address or e-mail, or would like a friend to start getting InfoNet, contact:Fran Morris, Governor’s DD Council
515/281-9082
800/452-1936 (TTY/Voice toll free)
Register for Advocating Change Training & Rally (March 16)
Learn to advocate – meet with your legislators – participate in a rally. You can do it all by attending the March 16 Advocating Change Training & Rally at the Capitol, sponsored by the Governor’s DD Council, Secretary of State Chet Culver, and ID Action. An optional Issue Briefing on funding issues that impact persons with disabilities will be sponsored by Polk County Health Services.
But you must register to attend the training and lunch! We already have over 200 registrations – so don’t wait. Contact Laura Larkin White at: 515/242-5083 or .
March 16 Schedule (tentative)
9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. – Optional Capitol Tours
9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. – Registration
10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. – Advocating Change Training (Governor’s DD Council, Secretary of State, and ID Action)
11:30 a.m. to Noon
Option 1 - Issue Briefing on Funding (Polk County Health Services)
Option 2 - Time to Meet with Your Legislators
Option 3 - Capitol Tour
Noon to1:00 p.m. – Lunch at Capitol West Steps
1:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. – Rally & Proclamation Signing in Capitol Rotunda
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. – Time to Meet with Your Legislators/Capitol Tours
The Field Gets Smaller
The number of Presidential candidates is getting smaller – and so is the list of bills that are still alive this year up at the State Capitol. U.S. Senator John Kerry (from Massachusetts) won 9 out of 10 states’ primaries on Tuesday. Senator John Edwards announced the following day that he would be dropping out of the race. That makes the race a two-person race between Sen. Kerry and President George W. Bush.This week also brought the end of the first legislative funnel. Unlike the presidential race, more than two bills remain, but the number is lower than at the beginning of the week. We would say “much lower”, except that a surprisingly high number of bills were introduced this week that ended up passing quickly out of committee. These last minute bills would become available to the public in the morning, and then mysteriously pass out of committee that same day.
Today (Friday, March 5, 2004) is the deadline for House committees to vote on House bills, and Senate committees to vote on Senate bills. Any Senate bills that didn’t make it out of Senate committees by today are now dead. The same goes for House bills that didn’t make it out of House committees. The funnel does not apply to bills in the Appropriations, Ways & Means, or Government Oversight Committees.
We are reproducing our “steps” to the legislative process because it helps in understanding what bills are still “alive” and what bills are now dead. To remain alive this year, bills have to have made it beyond Step Three.
The next legislative deadline coming up is Friday, March 26. By that time, bills must have made it through Step Five in this process – or they are dead.
Step One – Hey, I Got An Idea!
Step Two – Bill is IntroducedThe idea is written into a bill and introduced.Step Three – Bill Voted Out of Committee
Step Four – Bill is Voted on by Full House or Full SenateOnce a bill is out of committee, it is put on the calendar in the House or Senate (wherever it started).Step Five – Bill is Voted out of Committee AgainBills passed by the Senate now go to a House committee. Bills passed by the House will be sent to a Senate committee.
Step Six – Bill is Voted on by Full House or Full SenateStep Seven – Governor Signs the Bill(click here to go back to top)
What’s Ahead?
To get ready for the next deadline, legislators will be voting on bills most of the week. They will not meet in committees, unless necessary. So you can listen to their debate from your computers by going to: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/Audio/Audio.html.Legislators will be trying to vote on as many bills as possible this week, to prepare for the second funnel week (March 22-26) when all House committees must vote out Senate bills, and Senate committees must vote out House bills. The House is supposed to hold debate until 9:00 PM or later on at least two nights this upcoming week, so stay tuned to your computers and listen to what is going on!
If you are a person with a hearing impairment or cannot access the audio play of the debate, you can also watch a log of actions taken during debate online at: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/ in the boxes marked “Senate Action” and “House Action.” They are updated immediately and will automatically refresh.
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HAVA Clears First Hurdle!
On Thursday, March 4th, the Senate State Government Committee approved an Election Reform bill that would update Iowa’s election laws are required by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA). You may recall the bill approved last year ended up being vetoed by the Governor, based on opposition from the Secretary of State’s office.It is clear both sides have worked in the off-season to narrow the gap between the two versions of the bill. We do not know if the Secretary of State approves of the current HAVA bill, but it has been rewritten from last year, with a few minor additional changes in absentee voting. Despite the movement toward a compromise, no Democrats voted for the bill in Thursday’s committee meeting.
The main sections contained in the current bill that are not required by HAVA (and are not in the Secretary of State’s request) include:
· A section that would prohibit the return of an absentee ballot by anyone other than the voter. Exceptions would apply for residents or patients of a health care facility or hospital. Legislators seemed willing to confined persons living in home or community-based settings to have this right as well, but they would need to make a change to allow this.
· A section that would require county auditors to hold absentee ballot applications received more than 70 days before the election (absentee ballots would only be issued in the 70 days before an election).
· A section requiring a candidate or political party picking up an absentee ballot request to give the voter a receipt.
· A section that requires absentee ballots to be accompanied by a postage-paid envelope to be used to return the ballot. An amendment to be discussed later may make the state cover the cost, or counties will have to pick up the bill.
Now that the bill has cleared the first funnel, it is ready for Senate consideration. Its fate is unclear at the present. The Legislature needs to put up $700,000 this year in order to draw down federal money reserved for Iowa election reform, but it does not need to pass this bill to get the money. However, Republicans have said they will not appropriate money for HAVA until their election reform package (this bill) is adopted. You can view the current bill by going to SSB 3161. It will have a new # next week.
State Budget News
As noted in the last update, the state will know how much it can spend in their budgets this year after the quarterly revenue estimates come in on Monday, March 8. Revenue estimates are “best guesses” on how much money the state will take in during this fiscal year (through June 30, 2004). Legislators can spend 99% of that amount. The rest is put away in “reserve” accounts.Once these revenue estimates are out on Monday, legislative leaders will meet in private to set their budget targets. They will most likely announce these targets in a week or so. Then budget subcommittees will work quickly to put the finishing touches on their budgets (most haven’t even started discussions about what they would cut or give more money).
This is a GREAT week to talk to your legislators about:
· The bills you want them to keep working on (from the list of “alive” bills below).
· Funding – what you want funded, what you don’t want cut, where you want increases.
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Other Capitol News
This week, Governor Vilsack made Ralph Rosenberg the Director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, the agency that enforces laws that ban discrimination in employment, housing, finance/banking, education and public accommodation, including discrimination based on a person’s ability or disability. You can learn more about the Civil Rights Commission, or file complaints, at: www.state.ia.us/government/crc.Ralph Rosenberg was the Interim Executive Director at Heartland Senior Services; Executive Director of the Coalition for Children and Family Services in Iowa; Chair of the Institute for Public Leadership; and Executive Director of the Youth Law Center. He was also a State Representative (1981-1990) and a State Senator (1991-1994). The Governor chose Rosenberg because of he has “extensive experience in law, in public policy, as a member of the Legislature and in nonprofit administration, and he has demonstrated a strong personal commitment to civil rights.”
Democratic Proposal for Health Insurance Announced
The House Democrats introduced a new plan to stop the rising costs of health insurance this week, but not in time to beat the first legislative deadline. The plan, called Healthy Iowa for All (HIFA), would have created a large insurance pool to include state employees, and invite others to join, including uninsured persons, small businesses, local governments, and school districts. The bill (HF 2445) died in the House Commerce Committee, but look for it to be revived as amendments to other bills.
Anti-Bullying Campaign Picks Up Bi-Partisan Support
Lt. Governor Sally Pederson asked legislators on February 23 to pass a bill to raise awareness about (and hopefully eliminate) the problems of bullying and harassment in Iowa’s schools. Lt. Governor Pederson’s proposal would require schools to develop guidelines and policies to end bullying and make sure all children can learn in a safe environment. Pederson called bullying “a form of abuse, and no child’s experience of growing up should be defined by abuse. When students are afraid of being bullied at school, they cannot learn and perform in the classroom to their best potential.”
Senate Republicans picked up on the idea quickly and passed (SF 2176) out of committee last Thursday. Oddly enough, this followed an episode of the television show Law & Order SVU, which focused on teen bullying in schools. During the Lt. Governor’s press conference, Merrill Junior High School student Keely Shannon said schools need to address the worst kind of bullying – gossiping, where one person harasses the other by spreading rumors. And yes, she’s the daughter of Rik Shannon of the Governor’s DD Council.
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Bills Still Alive / This week we are listing all bills that made it past the first deadline. That means these bills are still alive, and can continue down the legislative process. These include new bills, and ones that have been listed before. Some bills changed when they were voted out of committee, so you might want to re-read the summaries to be sure you know what is in each bill.All dead bills have been removed from this list.
House Files
HF 627 - Mental Health Parity - Biologically Based (Bill Status: House Floor) - Requires insurance plans to cover biologically-based mental illnesses (schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, major depressive disorders, schizo-affective disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, pervasive developmental disorders, and autistic disorders). Requires a minimum 30 inpatient and 52 outpatient visits annually. Goes into effect January 1, 2004. The state says it will cost an additional $112,000 in 2005 and $128,000 in 2006 to increase state employee benefits.HF 2111 - Extra Tax Deduction for Families of Children with Disabilities (Bill Status: House Ways & Means Committee) - Allows a parent of a child with a disability living in one of the 85 counties that does not have a Children-At-Home program to get 100% of the federal child and dependent child care credit, regardless of income. Starts in tax year 2004. Current law allows parents earning less than $40,000/year to receive a portion of the federal income tax credit, depending on their income.