(Des Moines) Iowa lawmakers approved bills on elections, firearms and immigration law enforcement Thursday just ahead of the Legislature’s first “funnel” deadline of the 2025 session.
Most bills needed approval by a committee in one chamber this week to remain eligible for consideration. There are exceptions to this deadline, such as bills that involve taxes, government spending or oversight components, or legislation that is sponsored by leaders. However, much of the legislation that failed to gain approval in committee this week is considered “dead” and will not be up for consideration for the rest of the session.
One of the bills tabled Thursday would penalize sleeping and camping on public property, as well as allow local governments to create public camping spaces for homeless populations. The legislation was considered in subcommittees Wednesday, with the House version, House Study Bill 286 gaining approval while the Senate version, Senate Study Bill 1195, failed.
Though the House version passed the first round of the legislative process, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said in the House Judiciary Committee Thursday that the measure will not move forward.
“There’s a lot of work on that legislation that would need to be done, and so that legislation is not running today,” Holt said. “But it was a good discussion, a lot of good information in the subcommittee, so I appreciate that.”
Though the bill on homelessness did not advance, several other high-profile measures cleared the “funnel” deadline Thursday:
Elections
House Study Bill 294 would create protections and penalties relating to election materials produced with artificial intelligence, or “algorithmic discrimination” caused by AI.
The House Economic Growth and Technology Committee advanced the bill, with its floor manager Rep. Ray Sorensen noting the bill was a “work in progress.”
Rep. Austin Baeth, D-Des Moines, cautioned the committee on moving too quickly on the issue, noting a similar law had passed in Colorado and “is not going well.”
“We are on the cutting edge right now … We could perhaps use some time to learn from the mistakes of others and come out with something perfect – maybe it needs to be next year,” Baeth, who voted to advance the bill, said.
Another bill on elections, House Study Bill 281, advanced through the House State Government Committee Thursday. The legislation would allow the Iowa Secretary of State’s office to work with federal and state agencies, as well as private companies, to confirm the citizenship status of voters registered in Iowa.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate proposed the bill after his office issued controversial guidance leading into the 2024 general election. Pate directed county auditors to challenge the ballots of more than 2,000 registered voters whose citizenship status was in question.
The Senate State Government committee also passed a measure with this provision Wednesday, but the House bill tackles several other subjects, including a ban on ranked choice voting. The legislation also includes increasing the threshold for political party recognition from 2% to 10% of the total votes cast for a candidate in the previous general election.
The measure was passed 14-7 through the House committee with no debate.
Air quality
House File 191, which advanced from committee, would prohibit airborne emissions of contaminants that would affect “temperature, weather, or the intensity of sunlight.” Some House Environmental Protection Committee members tied the legislation to the chemtrails conspiracy theory, which holds that certain aircraft are involved in a scheme to spray chemicals affecting health, fertility or weather patterns.
Rep. Ken Croken, D-Davenport, who was part of the subcommittee on the bill, said it “would ban a practice that there’s no evidence is actually occurring.”
The bill references “geoengineering” which, according to the Harvard Solar Geoengineering Research Program, is an emerging practice that could manipulate the environment and partially offset the effects of climate change by releasing particles into the atmosphere that would reflect more sunlight back into space, or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
One of the bill’s authors, Rep. Sam Wengryn, R-Pleasanton, said he has seen several reports from different states and companies that this practice is already happening.
“(The bill) is just a matter of getting the ball rolling on this to look, hopefully bring in if we could, the state universities take a look … examine the air quality and see if there is actually something here,” Wengryn said.
Pipelines
Four bills advanced from the House Judiciary committee Thursday to restrict pipeline projects from using eminent domain and protecting intervenors in Iowa Utilities Commission proceedings.
Firearm age limits
House Study Bill 262, which would lower the age limit to carry a firearm from 21 to 18, will head to the House floor.
Holt said there will likely be an amendment stipulating that permits will not be allowed for 18-21 year-olds to satisfy the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, requirements.
Under current law, Iowa is a permitless carry state for anyone over the age of 21.
Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, opposed the bill in the House Judiciary Committee, noting that gun violence is the second leading cause of death for children and teens.
Holt said there are “all kinds of rights we could lose based upon what someone might do,” but he urged committee members to think of a 20-year-old living alone who would like to own a handgun to protect herself.
“She is an adult,” Holt said. “She has a right to do that.”
The bill was approved 17-4.
Immigration enforcement
The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation that would establish a Class D felony charge for law enforcement officials, including elected sheriffs, who do not comply with immigration law enforcement requirements in Iowa Code.
House Study Bill 285, passed by a subcommittee Wednesday, would create this criminal penalty for law enforcement officers who “knowingly and intentionally” defy state law on immigration enforcement. The measure comes following comments made on social media by Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx stating that he would not comply with immigration detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Holt said that under current Iowa Code, state funding is at risk for a local entity if one employee chooses to go against Iowa law on immigration enforcement. The bill, he said, would place the punishment on the individual directly.
“I have always been a big fan of our sheriffs and deputies and our law enforcement, obviously, I was one,” Holt said. “There’s nothing to worry about if you comply with the law, not a thing.”
While the legislation was passed as-is, Holt said he would likely advance an amendment during floor debate to lower the penalty from a felony to a serious misdemeanor charge.
