February 6, 2014 The primary focus this week has been on sub-committee meetings, the first step in preparing legislation for floor debate and eventual passage that will send it to the Senate. Subcommittees generally consist of three members, two from the majority party and one from the minority. Larger, more complex bills may have five members with a three to two split. Every legislator is allowed to submit as few or as many bills as they like. The legislator requests a bill draft from the Legislative Service Agency and LSA then determines the section of the Iowa Code where the bill would belong and then writes the bill to conform to the chapter and section where it would reside if passed into law. The legislator then either approves the bill draft or asks for modifications, after which he signs the bill request. It then proceeds to the Chief Clerk’s office, is read in on the floor and the Speaker assigns the bill to a standing committee. As you can imagine, some lawmakers request only a few bills a year and others may request fifty to one hundred. Assigning them to a sub-committee begins the winnowing process. Some bills may never receive a sub-committee hearing. If the chair of the subcommittee determines the bill has little or no merit they may not even meet on the bill. Sub-committee meetings are generally the only step in the process where anyone other than legislators are allowed to speak on a bill. Sub-committees can have anywhere from one or two attendees to a room packed with lobbyists, interested citizens, and the media. The subcommittee on the fuel tax bill attracted a huge crowd with standing room only and many more outside the doors of one of the House’s largest committee rooms. A bill can be passed out of sub-committee as presented, it can be amended and passed out or it will die if does not receive majority support. After passage it goes to the full standing committee where the process starts afresh. Bills must be passed out of the standing committees by February 21st to remain alive for the session so full committee activity will increase dramatically in the next week. Wednesday morning Major General Tim Orr spoke to a joint session of the Legislature on the state of the National Guard and the Air Guard. There are currently no Iowa Guard units in the Middle East and the only unit deployed is a small detachment of aircraft maintenance specialists that is in the Balkans at this time. General Orr outlined the phase out of the F-16 fighter wing in Des Moines and their replacement by a unit that will operate remotely piloted aircraft and a cyber-security unit. After the transition there will be nearly the same number of Guard positions as there was before the fighters left. General Orr focused a large part of his message on the Home Base Iowa initiative proposed by Governor Branstad. He believes that
Home Base Iowa will help Iowa attract some of the thousands of service men and women who will be looking for new careers and a new place to live as the military downsizes. He also talked about the planning and training that has taken place as his staff and state emergency responders studied the aftermath of the Joplin, Missouri tornado. He is determined that we will be prepared if a similar disaster occurs somewhere in Iowa. His was a very upbeat message on the condition of the Guard, the ability, quality and dedication of Iowa’s Guard members, and the great teamwork and cooperation between the Guard and the State. PLEASE JOIN ME AT THE FORUMS AND COFFEES; I WILL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER QUESTIONS AND DISCUSS ISSUES WITH YOU.
February 8 10:00 Iowa State Bank Meeting Room Sac City
February 22 10:00 am King’s Pointe Regatta Grill
March 22 10:00 am King’s Pointe Regatta Grill
