Iowa mourned the passing of Representative Martin Graber this week, who experienced a sudden heart attack on Friday, January 31. The House of Representatives canceled the majority of business on Monday for the visitation and conducted no business on Tuesday for the funeral. The Senate similarly slowed their pace until late in the week. This week in the Senate, the focus narrowed to the casino moratorium bill, which passed last Thursday in the House, and the introduction of more of Governor Reynolds’ priorities.
This week, there were 200 new bill introductions between both chambers, and 67 bills passed out of subcommittee. Currently, 49 bills have passed out of committee and are eligible for floor debate. No additional bills passed the House this week, and the Senate has yet to take any floor action.
Legislators have one more week until February 14 to request bill and joint resolution drafts to the Legislative Services Agency (LSA), marking the first major deadline of the 2025 legislative session.
Casino Moratorium
At the end of week three, the Iowa House passed HF 144, a bill to impose a moratorium on new casino licenses through June 30, 2030, which if passed would effectively halt the development of the proposed $275 million Cedar Crossing Casino and Entertainment Center. The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission was scheduled to vote on the Cedar Crossing license application on Thursday, February 6. This means that to have effect, the bill must have passed the Senate and been signed by the Governor by Thursday morning. However, the Senate State Government Committee decided not to hold a vote on SF 173 (companion HF 144) with Senate State Government Chair Ken Rozenboom stating:
“According to my conversations, this bill did not have enough support from Senate Republicans to advance all the way through the Senate process. In the interest of moving this session forward to other issues of critical importance to Iowans, I have no plans to reconsider the legislation for the remainder of this session.”
As scheduled, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission met on Thursday, February 6, and voted to approve the Cedar Rapids casino by a vote of 4-1. Project planners intend to break ground on the casino on Friday, February 7, and the project will take approximately 18-22 months to complete.
Governor Reynolds’ Legislative Priorities
The Governor continues to introduce legislation in the Iowa House and Senate with five new bill introductions this week.
Energy
HSB 123 is the Governor’s energy bill, which broadly aims to attract investment in Iowa’s energy sector while balancing economic and environmental interests. The bill would establish a flexible rate tool, modernize the Energy Infrastructure Revolving Loan Program, and expand eligibility requirements for advanced ratemaking proceedings. It would give authority to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to permit anaerobic digesters, add economic development as a factor of consideration during the Iowa Utilities Commission contract review process, and grant incumbent utilities the right of first refusal on new electric transmission line infrastructure projects, among other provisions.
In a press release ahead of the bill introduction, the Governor’s Office dubbed this bill as a “forward-focused, all-of-the-above energy bill.” Notably, the bill contains provisions related to the promotion of nuclear energy as Iowa’s only nuclear power plant, Duane Arnold, was decommissioned in 2020 and has been the subject of recent re-opening talks. The proposed legislation is likely to receive scrutiny as lawmakers spend the next couple of weeks reviewing the bill to evaluate how it will impact their districts and Iowa.
Government Efficiency
SSB 1084 would allow the Department of Administrative Services to dispose of the Henry A. Wallace Building. The 46-year-old Wallace Building needs millions of dollars in structural and mechanical improvements and repairs. In 2023 the State bought an office building at 6200 Park Avenue, lessening the need to keep the Wallace Building for office space.
Education
HSB 137 and its Senate companion SSB 1092 relate to education and broadly reform Iowa’s math and civics education for K-12 students. If passed, the Department of Education would be required to develop and distribute resources to support math learning at home and to provide teachers with evidence-based professional development services to improve math instruction. Additionally, students in kindergarten through sixth grade would be assessed in math three times per year with provisions to improve performance if standards are not met. In civics education, all students would be required to take and pass the U.S. citizenship test to receive a high school diploma or equivalent.
SSB 1100 further reforms education by seeking to improve educational standards and support for both teachers and students studying education in Iowa. The bill includes some tweaks related to HF 2612 from the last session and establishes a minimum starting salary of $50,000 for full-time teachers and $62,000 for those with at least 12 years of experience. The proposal allows for out-of-state placement for certain special education students and would create a new school-focused state job board.
State Supplemental Aid (SSA) Rate Increase
The Iowa House also made education a priority this week, introducing HSB 138, which addresses supplemental state aid (SSA), and is typically one of the early enactments in the legislative session. Each year, this bill makes additional funding available to school districts to account for annual inflationary increases. SSA funding is addressed early on in session to provide school districts with advance notice of funding changes to ease the budget preparation and certification process. See below for a table of recent SSA increases:
The bill put forward by the House GOP caucus would set the SSA at 2.25%, which is higher than the proposed rate of 2% proposed in the Senate and by the Governor. Furthermore, the bill would increase school transportation equity payments and provide a one-time increase in per-pupil funding. Speaking with Iowa Capital Dispatch, House Speaker Pat Grassley expressed:
“The governor and the Senate were at 2%, we wanted to try to be higher on that, but we also have been hearing from our school districts things that are important to them — like operational sharing, like cost per pupil, like transportation costs that they’re seeing, other inflationary costs…. So we tried to come up with more of a menu that suits (each district).”
What’s next?
Next week, the legislature will be back for another full week. The first major milestone of the 2025 legislative session is on Friday, February 14, marking the deadline for legislators to request bill drafts and joint resolutions. The full 2025 Session Timetable can be found here.
