Worthan Newsletter18

February 5, 2015 The House is currently occupied by a steady series of policy committee and sub-committee meetings. Very...

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February 5, 2015 The House is currently occupied by a steady series of policy committee and sub-committee meetings. Very little floor action occurs at this point in the session as individual bills are considered in three or five person sub-committees. A few bills have advanced through sub-committee and are ready to be debated in policy committees. My policy committee assignments this session are Transportation and Public Safety. In addition to the policy committees I serve on two appropriation committees. The House Appropriation Committee considers every spending bill that moves through the House and is responsible for crafting the entire state budget. The Appropriation Committee has several department specific sub-committees. I currently serve as the House Chairman of the Justice Systems Budget Sub-committee. In Justice Systems we handle the budgets of the Department of Corrections, the Department of Public Safety, Iowa Court System, the Attorney General’s office, the Civil Rights Commission, the Parole Board, the Department of Homeland Security, the Iowa National Guard, the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, the Public Defenders Office, the Indigent Defense Fund, and a small portion of a couple of other offices. In total we are responsible for about $740 million of the state’s budget. We are meeting two to three times per week in Justice Systems. We generally meet with one department at each meeting where they present and then take questions from the committee about their budgets. We have a unique situation this year as we will be meeting with the Department of Corrections on three separate days. One day will be the normal budget meeting; the other two will be concerned with the new Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison which is now over one year behind schedule with no finish date in sight. Originally there were serious problems with the geo-thermal heating and cooling system. Those have been solved but upon final inspection by the Fire Marshal’s office it was determined that the smoke evacuation system in the cell blocks was totally inadequate. A solution has been proposed and tests are being conducted to confirm that it works. If those tests check out, then the equipment will have to be ordered, built, and installed. The best case scenario indicates that we may be able to move offenders into the facility in late summer or early fall, nearly two years behind schedule. The new facility will replace the original Iowa State Penitentiary down the hill in Fort Madison near the Mississippi River. The original was built in 1839 while Iowa was still a territory. Iowa statehood postdates the prison by seven years. The new prison will expand our capacity for maximum security prisoners from 550 to 800 in a much more modern and efficient facility. The problems with the new facility result from mistakes made during design and construction. Determining where the responsibility lies will probably take several years of litigation. The Legislature’s responsibility will be to make sure that all the costs associated with the delayed opening and the increased costs for the modifications required will be paid by the contractors. Oversight of this process will fall on the joint Justice Systems and the Administration and Regulation budget sub-committees along with the joint Oversight

Committee. For the short term we are concentrating on solving the problems with the facility and moving the offenders. At this point there is nothing new on the potential law suit by the Des Moines Water Works. Hopefully talks initiated by County Attorney Dave Patton will be able to avert the suit and we can continue to implement Iowa’s nutrient reduction plan and solve the situation through cooperation rather than litigation.

I look forward to seeing you at my upcoming legislative forums: February 21

March 21

Kings Pointe Regatta Grill

Kings Pointe Regatta Grill

10:00 a.m.

10:00 a.m.