State Assembly
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Iowa senators voting against birth control part of a pattern
Republicans say they support birth control access, but for years they’ve failed to vote on protections to guarantee access stays safe. When the federal Right to Contraceptive Act failed in the US Senate last week, state Sen. Zach Wahls, a Democrat representing Coralville, saw a parallel to what happened when Iowa Democrats introduced a Right…
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Iowa legislators benefit from government subsidies while blocking assistance to others
About a fourth of the 150-person Iowa Legislature benefits from some form of farm subsidies. Here’s who they are and how much they are getting from the federal government.
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AEAs cutting workers in wake of Republican legislation
Iowa legislators said a new bill cutting money for agencies that help students with disabilities wouldn’t affect services. But area education agencies (AEAs) across the state are now beginning to cut their budgets, and staff, because of it. “This is a day of grieving,” one staffer at the Green Hills AEA wrote on Facebook last…
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Bayer/Monsanto has poured money into Iowa politics for years
As Bayer, the major pharmaceutical and biotech company, lobbies the Iowa Legislature to enact legislation to protect it from civil suits related to its pesticide products, it is worth noting that Bayer and Monsanto—which Bayer purchased in 2018—have collectively poured over $530,000 into the campaign coffers of Iowa’s state-level politicians since 2002. From 2002-2018, Monsanto…
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How Iowa Republicans used the AEA bill to play politics
Iowa Republicans are going to say Iowa Democrats don’t support teacher pay, but they won’t mention that it was part of the unpopular AEA bill.
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Gov. Reynolds signs AEA bill ‘that no one really likes’
Story updated after the bill was signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday, March 27.
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Opinion: I was an Iowa legislator. Where’s the substance to today’s bills?
In today’s hyper-partisan, emotion-fueled political environment, where policy proposals are seemingly presented and defended with facile slogans and tribal appeals, how can any citizen differentiate between the truly good and beneficial ones and those that either serve only a few or harm or denigrate others? I would like to advance a modest proposal based upon…
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As some Iowa lawmakers vilify birth control, here’s what it actually does
When Dr. Emily Boevers, an OB-GYN in Waverly, first sits down with patients for birth control consultations, she asks them a series of questions about why they want to use it, and for how long. “The thing that I think is really important to keep in mind about birth control is that these are hormonal…
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Iowa pauses on most anti-LGBTQ bills, but advocates not letting their guard down
Cautious relief might be the best way to describe how some of Iowa’s most prominent LGBTQ organizations feel after a majority of the anti-LGBTQ bills in the Iowa Legislature stalled out after the second legislative funnel last week. “Out of the ones that directly targeted LGBTQ folks, there were 40 of those and 39 of…
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Iowans like AEAs, but Republicans are ramming through controversial reforms anyway
Sen. Molly Donahue (D-Cedar Rapids) questioned her colleagues on why they were moving forward with enacting major legislative changes to Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs), a plan most Iowans don’t see the need for. “Nobody wanted this bill. Nobody asked for this bill. No one campaigned on this bill all across the state,” Donahue said…
