This week we considered, debated and passed bills on the floor of the House. You may recall that last week was the first “funnel” where bills had to be passed out of the committees and be brought to the House floor for debate if they were to be considered any further.

The next deadline will be in about two weeks – about 10 working days.  Bills on the path to becoming law must pass the House or Senate and be out of the other chamber’s committees by Friday, March 14th.  After that date, only the Appropriations and the Ways and Means Committees will continue to meet regularly, as bills coming out of these committees are not subject to these deadlines.  Budget subcommittees will be wrapping up their work in the next week or two, with discussions going on between the two Houses.  Coming to agreement on matching individual line-item expenditures and joint budget targets between the House and Senate will take some additional time.

Here’s the full list of bills still alive for the 2014 legislative session:http://iowahouse.org/pdf/2014FirstFunnelListofEligibleBills.pdf

You can follow activity in the House Chamber by logging onto https://www.legis.iowa.gov.
On the website, it is possible to hear floor debates, check on committee activity, follow bills and vote history, and see what bills your legislator has sponsored.

Elder Abuse

Iowa seniors deserve to live out their lives with dignity, respect and quality.  That’s why we are working on bipartisan legislation this year to prevent elder abuse.  The legislation is based on recommendations from experts that met last year to ensure that Iowa seniors have the protections they need and deserve.

Iowa is one of the few states that does not have specific elder abuse laws.  We have dependent adult abuse laws to protect seniors under the care of others. However, seniors who are not dependent on others for care may be taken advantage of or be pressured to make bad decisions.

That’s why we are working to create new law that will combat elder abuse for all of our seniors.  It attempts to protect every senior over 60 from abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation.

Here are a few of the new changes being considered:

• New criminal penalties for financial exploitation
• An Elder Abuse Resource and Referral Program in local communities focused on prevention and response to elder abuse
• Protective orders for victims of elder abuse
• Training to recognize elder abuse
• Removal of confidentiality restrictions to allow the Attorney General’s Office access to dependent adult abuse and elder abuse information

Increased Penalties for Child Kidnapping

By an overwhelming margin, the Iowa House voted to increase the penalties for kidnapping a child.  The bill is intended to address the sentencing issues brought to light from the Kathlynn Shepard kidnapping and murder last year.

The House version, HF 2253, would require that anyone who kidnaps someone 15 years or under would be guilty of a class “B” felony, punishable by up to 25 years in prison.  Under the bill, the kidnapper of Kathlynn Shepard and her friend Dezi Hughes would still have been in prison for previous offenses instead of being released under then current law.

The bill now goes to the Senate where a similar version was passed this week.

Helping Troubled Youth

The Senate is on the right track to helping Iowa’s most troubled youth.  SF 2322, addresses the loss of services and education for delinquent girls due to the closing of the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo. The bill comes to the Republican-controlled House where it faces an uncertain fate.

Without the Home, there is a critical hole in Iowa’s youth safety net. Currently, Iowa judges have no appropriate place to send our most troubled girls for treatment and education. Disability Rights Iowa, Iowa’s Juvenile Court officers and the chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Toledo all favor the approach adopted in SF 2322.

The bill ensures equitable services for troubled girls and boys. It requires accreditation of treatment programs and educational services. It emphasizes contemporary, evidence-based approaches to treatment and adequate staff training. The bill also increases accountability for guardians and attorneys who advocate on a youth’s behalf.

2013 Iowa Factbook

The Legislature’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency has published the 2013 Iowa Factbook.  The document contains a range of facts, both financial and nonfinancial, regarding statistics on Iowa’s government, economy, and populations.

There are a variety of color “Fact Maps” created by LSA staff including maps on census data, farmland values, K-12 data, and tax data (property, income, sales, and local options).

The Iowa Factbook can be found at: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/FCT/2014/25037/25037.pdf.  Copies are available to the public upon request.  Please call (515) 281-5279 or email megan.thompson@legis.iowa.gov.

Educator, Joan Stekl, teaches Family & Consumer Sciences at Washington High School in the Cedar Rapids Community School District. She brought some of her Pro Start students to the capitol to demonstrate their sautéing skills. Pro Start is a two year program offered by the National and Iowa Restaurant Associations for high school students interested in pursuing a restaurant career. Joan is doing an exemplary job with her students; they were friendly, professional – and didn’t laugh once at my attempts to flip a pancake! (FYI, I did manage a single flip with 6 turns of the pancake!)

Speaking about the federal school breakfast and lunch programs and nutrition and health guidelines under the Iowa Healthy Kids Act. Shown here with consultants from the IA Dept of Ed Bureau of Nutrition and Health Services: Sandra Fiegen and Lisa Robinson. This was at the “Hunger In Iowa – Thought Leader Meeting” hosted by AARP, the Iowa Food Bank Association, United Way of East Central Iowa, HACAP and others. Also participating in the discussions about barriers to broader community advocacy on the topic of hunger are: Tim Getty of Heritage Agency of Aging, and Eugenia Vavra, Community-Building Mgr at United Way. Emcees at the discussion were Kent Sovern, State Director of AARP; Cory Berkenes, State Director of the Iowa Food Bank Association and (not pictured) Amanda Pieper, Director of HACAP Food Resevoir.

In Iowa, over 395,000 people are at risk for hunger and 1 in 8 of those age 60+ are food-insecure. These are sobering statistics and must be addressed. This meeting was an attempt to gather ideas on how state government, community organizations and individuals can work together to reduce the number of families at risk for hunger.

With Craig Martinson, Engineering Technician at Rockwell Collins, and Mark Nall, H.S. Science Teacher at East Buchanan Community School District at the FTC-Iowa Championship in Coralville. 48 teams competed in the event, including Kennedy High School’s team, Cougar Bots. The crowd of spectators was tremendous for this STEM event hosted by the University of Iowa College of Engineering and Rockwell Collins. Creative mascots cheered on their team and the competition was lively. Great to see our young people pumped up about Science!

The State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation Services sponsored a legislative breakfast. Good discussions about the collaborate efforts of Voc Rehab with Manpower in providing job placement for Iowans with disabilities. Holly Mateer, Rehab Supervisor with the Cedar Rapids office of Voc Rehab explainied the community job placement process. Kathy Joblinske has been Regional Director of Manpower for only six months, but she already has an excellent grasp of the issues in order to strongly express the organizations mission. IVRS Administrator, David Mitchell, spoke about the additional $700,000 state dollars investment which would draw down $2.6 million federal dollars. This sounds like a good ROI – and fantastic for our communities.

Good discussion with Kayla Paulson, RSVP Coordinator for Linn County. RSVP is a United Way of East Central Iowa volunteer initiative which taps into the the valuable skills and resources of our seniors and retirees, age 55+. I learned that there are even volunteer options for home-bound seniors. Last year, 5,074 RSVP volunteers provided 426,611 hours of service valued at $7,487,023! To learn more, or become a volunteer yourself: https://unitedwayofeastcentraliowa.org/rsvp/

Sue Driscoll, United Way of East Central Iowa’s Volunteer Program Manager; and Patti Fields, Vice President for Community Impact & Engagement at United Way of Johnson County, visited with legislators about the system for background checks. They want the legislature to improve the system with a focus on making checks more affordable and easier to access, especially for non-profits using volunteers.

I learned that UWECI Volunteer Engagement referred or coordinated over 2,900 volunteers who contributed 86,980 hours of volunteer service, valued at $1,925,737. THAT’s a tremendously valuable contribution to our community!

Speaking with constituent Janet Rorholm, who is a Peer Liaison with the Iowa Foster & Adoptive Parents Association. Kids with mental illnesses may have an even more difficult time than adults of accessing mental health experts in a timely manner in Iowa. We have a shortage of child psychiatrists and mental health counselors necessary to address these needs. Learn more about foster and adoptive parents resources here:http://www.ifapa.org/

Good discussion with representatives from the Linn – Mar School District: Superintendent Katie Mulholland, Board VP Tina Paterson, Board President Barry Buchholz, CFO J.T. Anderson, Deputy Supt. Dirk Halupnik. We spoke about a myriad of educational issues regarding public schools: allowable growth, ELL, sharing arrangements between districts, at-risk students, and anti-bullying legislation. As an educator, I am very interested in these issues.

The Glenwood and Woodward Resource Centers served lunch in the rotunda. I enjoyed visiting with family members of residents in the treatment centers. Georgia Anderson and Michelle Hartfield shared their personal stories of the wonderful care provided at Glenwood (which serves 255 residents) and Woodward (165 residents). They want to make certain that legislators provide funding at the levels requested. I am supportive of this. Michelle’s parting words to me were, “Society is judged by how well it takes care of its most vulnerable.”

At the local United Labor Alliance legislative forum. Topics included: apprenticeship programs, minimum wage, gas tax, and preschool programs. Good crowd that clearly supports fairness for Iowa workers and their families.

Creative Corridor Day created excitement throughout the building by providing kolaches, committee presentations, lunch from Pancheros and samples of locally made items! I enjoyed hearing from members of the Urban County Coalition as they presented their trails and senior center requests to the Infrastructure Committee today. And it was really great to see Kim Johnson again. Kim is Vice President of Kirkwood Community College’s Continuing Education and Training Services – a smart, talented representative of our excellent community college.

Skinny heard around the capitol is that Iowa’s Creative Corridor is welcomed back anytime!

Continue Reading the Statehouse News

To read the rest of my Statehouse News go to: http://iowahouse.org/StatehouseNews/2-28-14