Some bills sail, others fail at second funnel

Friday marked the final day of the second “funnel” portion of the Iowa State Legislature’s 2015 session.

Several bills, some having solid backing from Gov. Terry Branstad or other prominent advocates, stayed alive into the final few weeks of the session, while others will be considered “dead” after failing to move beyond the committee level.

The regular session started on Jan. 12, and is scheduled to end about May 1, as legislators can only bill for daily expenses through that date, but a difficult battle over school funding and many other bills to tackle make it unclear whether the House and Senate will adjourn by the end of the month.

One bill that will live on is Senate File 484, the Medical Cannabis Act. The proposal would allow cannabis products to be used in medicines used to treat cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, AIDS or HIV, Hepatitis C, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, PTSD and other conditions. The proposal would allow up to four producers to grow marijuana in Iowa with oversight from state government.

However, SF 484 has not been approved by a committee in either chamber of the legislature. Senate Majority Leader Michael D. Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) included the proposal on a list of bills that will go on the Senate’s “unfinished business” calendar.

Gronstal also placed SF 383 on that list. The bill calls for an address confidentiality program for victims of sexual abuse, stalking and other crimes. A similar bill, House File 585, already cleared its chamber by a 100-0 vote. Reps. Dan Kelley (D-Newton) and Greg Heartsill (R-Columbia) voted in favor of the measure.

SF 427 started out as one of the more sweeping gun-rights reforms in recent memory, but not all of the most controversial elements of the bill made it through both chambers. Some key amendments were narrowly shot down as the bill cleared the Senate, 46-4, with Sens. Chaz Allen (D-Newton) and Amy Sinclair (R-Allerton) voting in favor of the bill.

However, the bill underwent significant modification last week. The House Committee of the Judiciary, which includes Heartsill, voted in an amendment that strikes the proposed change for handgun purchase permits from mandatory to optional, which would have removed certain background checks, along with proposed changes to the waiting period, and its associated permit.

The bill will still make gun suppressors, or silencers, legal to purchase in Iowa. It would also allow children under the age of 14 to use handguns with adult supervision, and would call for the creation of a statewide permit holder law-enforcement database.

SF 427 hasn’t come to a vote before the full House yet.

SF 461 and HF 576 are both aimed at expanding high-speed Internet access statewide, offering tax advantages as incentives for companies that could expand network capabilities. While neither the House nor the Senate included the governor’s proposal to fund a $5 million grant pool for providers, there are provisions to do that at a later date.

Neither bill has come to a full floor vote in either chamber yet.

SF 226 and HF 614 would legalize some types of airborne consumer fireworks — such as Roman candles and bottle rockets — that have been outlawed in Iowa for more than 50 years. Supporters claim revenue is being lost because Iowans are going to other states to purchase fireworks; Kelley and many others, especially those in public safety, are opposed to the measures.

HF 614 was placed on the House calendar of unfinished business. SF 345 is one of this year’s bills that deals with anti-bullying — a stated priority topic for Branstad this spring. The measure, which calls for a student mentor pilot program to be set up and gives school personnel authority to investigate off-campus or social-media bullying, was passed in the Senate by a 43-7 vote, which included the support of both Allen and Sinclair.

The House version has been passed by the Education Committee and is set to go to the House floor. SF 6, a similar bill that also called for dropout prevention funding, never made it out of a subcommittee.

SF 166 is a bill that would allow Iowans to win cash and other prizes while playing fantasy sports in state, overturning a state law prohibiting the practice. Allen voted for the bill, while Sinclair voted against it, as the Senate version passed, 32-16.

HF 281 is the House version of the bill, and it has been placed on the calendar.

SF 402 would keep all four of the state’s mental-health inpatient institutes open until a transition plan is set up for the patients currently in the system. Branstad has suggested the Clarinda and Mount Pleasant facilities be closed.

Allen voted in favor of the bill, while Sinclair voted against the new plan for the hospitals. The bill was passed by a 29-19 Senate vote, and the House has sent it to a subcommittee.

Allen and Sinclair both voted for SF 391, which would allow police to pull a vehicle over specifically because a driver is observed to be texting while driving. The Senate passed the bill by a 44-6 vote, and the House version made it through a subcommittee last week.

SF 456 would allow groceries and convenience stores to sell refillable “growlers” of beer as big as 72 ounces. Allen was one of the 40 senators to vote for the measure when it was passed by the Senate, while Sinclair was one of only nine who opposed it.

The House version was approved last week by the Committee for State Government, where Kelley serves.

HF 599 details rule and procedural changes for school districts that are dissolving, partnering with other districts or reorganizing. The bill passed 96-0 in the House, and Sinclair and her 13 other Senate Education Committee members moved it along to the Senate floor by unanimous vote last Thursday.

Not all of the bills that seemed to have widespread support made it through the second funnel date.

SF 269 would have taken the minimum wage up to $8 per hour on July 1 and $8.75 in July of 2016. When the Senate passed the bill, 27-22, Allen voted in favor of it, while Sinclair voted against it.

The House took up the measure, but a motion to place it on next week’s calendar was defeated. Kelley was one of the 40 representatives who voted for that motion, while Heartsill was one of the 56 who voted to keep SF 269 off the calendar, essentially killing the bill.

A more aggressive measure to raise the minimum wage, HF 71, died when it didn’t make it through the first funnel cycle on March 6.

Kelley was one of the sponsors of that bill. Kelley and Heartsill were among the 95 representatives who voted to pass HF 394, versus only five against, in a proposal to provide regulatory structure for transportation companies like Uber and Lyft. However, the bill died last week in the Senate Transportation Committee.

A ban on gay conversion therapy on patients younger than 18 years old won the approval of Allen, but not Sinclair, in the Senate, as SF 334 passed, 26-24. The House, where the Republicans hold a majority, never got the bill past a subcommittee.

HF 573 would have required pregnant women to have an ultrasound exam and to have the opportunity to view the image before receiving an abortion. Heartsill voted in favor of the bill and Kelley voted against it as it cleared the House, 57-39, but the Senate decided not to consider it at all.

SF 1 was a proposal to allow Iowa-based bidders to gain preference on some types of state contracts. Allen voted in favor of the act and Sinclair against it when the bill was passed by the Senate, 31-19, but Kelley and the two other members of his House subcommittee didn’t advance the measure.

Allen and Sinclair both voted for SF 219, which would have re-classified the possession of five grams or less of marijuana as a simple misdemeanor for a first-time offender. The measure was never taken up by a committee by the House.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com