Week seven of the legislative session has come to an end. Next week, the first legislative funnel will occur. March 3 is the final date for Senate bills and joint resolutions to be reported out of Senate committees and House bills and joint resolutions to be out of House committees. Bills that do not meet those requirements are considered to be dead. However, there are exceptions to the funnel rules. To read more about the rules of the two legislative funnels and to see the rest of the session timetable, use this link: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/SESTT/current.pdf
On Tuesday, Feb. 21, I met with the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association at their legislative breakfast. One major concern brought to my attention was access to veterinarian care for animals in rural Iowa. This brought us to discuss the importance of the Rural Iowa Veterinarian Loan Repayment Program. This program gives up to $60,000 in student loan repayments to Iowa veterinarians. Recently graduated veterinarians or students in their last year of a veterinarian degree program become eligible for loan forgiveness by practicing veterinarian medicine in eligible areas. I am grateful to our veterinarians and technicians for their work to keep animals, both pets and livestock, healthy.
Senate File 228 was passed in the Senate this week. This bill limits the amount of noneconomic a jury may award in a commercial vehicle accident lawsuit. An important thing to note is that economic damages, like lost wages, healthcare care costs, and other definable expenses, remain uncapped, as do punitive damages, where a driver or company is guilty of extreme negligence in the conduct of their business. SF 228 passed on a vote of 30-19.
How our state runs elections has been a prominent topic over the last few years.
Today, I’m including information regarding the technology that Iowa uses to maintain clean and accurate voter lists. This technology is called the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). In less than one year, the program helped Iowa identify more than 1,300 deceased voters who were not included in the Iowa Department of Public Health’s data. ERIC does not have access to Iowa’s voter registration system and does not make changes to Iowa’s voter rolls. List maintenance activity, including changes to voter records, is done entirely by local and state election officials.
I encourage my constituents to contact me using my legislative email ([email protected]) with any comments, questions, or concerns. I look forward to another great week of representing the people of District 42.
From the Statehouse: First funnel week occurs March 3
March 2, 2023