Saturday Forum

The first League of Women Voters public forum for the 2017 legislative session is this Saturday, January 21, at Mercy Medical Center, 701 10th Street SE, Cedar Rapids, from 10:30-11:45 A.M. in the Hallagan Education room.  Please come and join us!

2017 Legislative Survey Results: Education and Working Families Top Priority

The legislative survey that was initiated last week and included in my newsletter revealed that education and working Iowa families are top priorities.  The survey was conducted to gather feedback on constituent priorities for the 2017 legislative session.

Of those of you who participated in the survey, an overwhelming 80% say public schools should be the top priority for us during the 2017 legislative session.  The survey also indicated that there is overwhelming support to help Iowa’s working families. This includes working to keep college affordable at Iowa’s community colleges and state universities, targeting state incentives to help small businesses, and taking steps to help families with the high cost of child care.

Other results from the survey included:

• 83% support raising the minimum wage.
• 90% want stronger oversight over the Governor’s privatized Medicaid plan.
• 91% support investing in renewable energy and encouraging energy production with wind, solar and biofuels – creating jobs.
• 88% said that lawmakers should not pass additional tax breaks for corporations.
• 94% asked us to expand and improve access to mental health services.

Legislature Honors Veterans at Statehouse

On Wednesday, veterans and their families traveled to Des Moines for Veterans Day at the Capitol.  Throughout the day, veterans met with legislators to discuss the priorities of the Veterans Coalition – a group of representatives from various veterans’ organizations across Iowa, working collectively to develop and advance policy ideas to assist veterans and their families.

Women’s March & Women’s Rights

Thousands of Iowa women are expected to participate in the Women’s March at the State Capitol this Saturday, January 21, while hundreds of thousands are expected at the March in Washington, DC.  Following an election where many women felt demonized and insulted, the organizers of the March in Iowa say they want to send a message to leaders that they stand for human decency, equal rights, and freedom from discrimination.

One of the top priorities of Governor Branstad, and many Republicans in the Iowa House & Senate, is to defund Planned Parenthood which would leave thousands of Iowa women without access to critical health care services throughout the state, like cancer screenings, birth control, and STD tests.  The same bill would also scoop tax dollars from another fund already used for children in foster care and other vulnerable Iowans.

Some Republican lawmakers think Iowa women would not be without services because they could get their reproductive health care at the dentist or from the school nurse’s office.  For more on this and the investigation of alternatives please read:  http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/01/iowa-lawmakers-alternative-clinics-to-planned-parenthood.html

Delay of Literacy Initiatives & Student Assessments?

A group of Republican lawmakers, and Branstad, are planning to delay or cancel an initiative launched a few years ago to help struggling readers in elementary school, in addition to putting a hold on the implementation of the curriculum-aligned Smarter Balanced exams.

Shortages in the budget, blamed on reduction in state revenue from exemptions and corporate tax cuts in 2013, have serious consequences for Iowa education today and in the future – with available funds going from a surplus of $900 million in 2013 to a negative -$110 million this year.  To read more about these education concerns see: http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268748/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=tQBOwmRo

The Week in Photos

Tuesday was CMV (Cytomegalovirus) day at the Capitol, and I was honored to be able to spend a few minutes talking with Paul and Amanda Devereaux about the impact this virus has had on their daughter, Pippa, and more than 8,000 other children every year.

Affecting one out of every 150 children, CMV is more common than Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, Pediatric HIV and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, yet very few people realize the damage that CMV can cause to children.

The Devereaux’s were here to encourage support for a bill which would raise awareness and provide cost-effective screening for a targeted group of infants. I will certainly be co-sponsoring this legislation. This is a PREVENTABLE virus that is a leading cause of disabilities for children.

For more information about CMV and proposed legislation see: https://www.nationalcmv.org/resources/blog/february-2016/help-support-iowa-cmv-legislation-2.aspx

________________________________________

In the Capitol on Wednesday, I met with Laura Nelson, representing LifeServe – a non-profit, community-based blood center committed to saving lives by ensuring a stable blood supply.  LifeServe is one of only 18 community blood centers nationwide that performs its own blood testing.

Currently, Iowa levies sales tax on blood centers’ acquisition of reagents and other supplies – components needed to perform required and necessary testing on donated blood. LifeServe representatives were here today to support a bill that would exempt them from the sales tax on these products.

________________________________________

The Rotunda was packed on Wednesday as we celebrated Veteran’s Day at the Capitol. It’s an important day that I look forward to each year. As a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee I have learned that It is absolutely critical that we take some time to visit with our Veterans, to learn about their lives and concerns, and to thank them to their service to all of us. Providing for our retired service members is a sacred trust that we must take very seriously in the Legislature. It is always a delight to visit with one of the most passionate and hard-working advocates for Veterans, Don Tyne, the Linn County Director of Veteran Affairs.

I am very proud to have supported, as a co-sponsor and floor manager, the bill establishing the Iowa Lottery Veteran’s Trust fund in 2007. Since the lottery began providing money for the Veteran’s Trust Fund in 2008, they have raised more than $22 Million for Iowa Veterans, with a portion of the proceeds from ALL Iowa Lottery games going to the Veteran’s Trust Fund. This fund helps our most needy Iowa Veterans and their families with direct aid to address critical needs like emergency housing, dental care and auto repairs.
Pictured below are Kim Vore and Mary Neubauer from the Iowa Lottery.

________________________________________

HCI Care Services (formerly Hospice of Central Iowa) and Visiting Nurse Services of Iowa (VNS) hosted a legislative reception on Wednesday, and in addition to scolding any legislator who hadn’t received a flu shot, they filled us in about their legislative priorities this year.

HCI Care Services and VNS provide a variety of healthcare related services to thousands of families in 41 Iowa Counties. Last year, after being served by VNS of Iowa’s Healthy Start and Empowerment Project, 98% of children in these counties had health insurance.

Among the legislative priorities for HCI Care Services and VNS are:

• Supporting administrative and regulatory frameworks that facilitate the use of telemedicine.
• Developing an incentive program for attracting and training individuals who live in rural Iowa to become professional caregivers.
• Develop a framework and timeline bill to implement a children’s mental health system in Iowa.
Pictured left to right are Jim Luden, Spiritual Care Counsellor at the HCI facility in Mt. Pleasant, Rob Paulus, Director of the Kavanagh House in Des Moines, and Jane Flanagan, Development Coordinator for HCI Care Services/VNS.

________________________________________

Always happy to visit with local teachers and discuss education issues in the Iowa Capitol, especially former teacher-colleagues like Jan White from the Cedar Rapids District.

________________________________________

A thank you to Iowa’s Kum & Go for Wednesday night’s Legislative Reception at The Forge. In addition to great hospitality and networking, I had a very informative conversation with the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Craig Bergstrom. One of the many questions I asked him concerned credit card fees and point of sale (POS) transaction fees charged to businesses. From my own small-business experiences, I know that electronic credit card transactions are not an insignificant expense.

As a result of our discussion, I realized that the costs of these POS/transaction fees are an issue for both small and large businesses. I am pretty certain that state’s, like Iowa, have little jurisdiction in this area, so I plan on contacting my federal Congressman and Senators with my concerns.

________________________________________

It was another early start Thursday morning – at a Legislative meeting with the Iowa State Board of Education members. The discussions included the alignment of a new assessment to Iowa’s academic standards, progress updates on the development of a comprehensive career pathways system and increasing the accessibility of career and technical training.

To learn more about the BOE and their Legislative priorities visit: www.educateiowa.gov

________________________________________

The House Democratic Caucus took advantage of the final day that President Obama’s portrait will be hanging in the House Chamber. We took a group photo, with the President, for the 2017-2018 Legislative session. It is a bittersweet feeling, but our work here, for Iowans, will continue unabated and President Obama’s legacy will not be forgotten.

“You don’t change the course of history by turning the faces of portraits to the wall.” – Jawaharlal Nehru