The Iowa legislature is now facing the second “funnel date” on March 20. This is a self-imposed legislative deadline first implemented following the 1979 legislative session, which ran through June. This prompted the General Assembly to establish procedural deadlines to manage the workflow. The “funnel” is a rule requiring bills to pass a certain hurdle by a specific date to remain alive.
Our first funnel (February 20) required that bills pass through a subcommittee then a full committee. The second funnel (March 20) requires a bill to pass the full House or Senate. The bill will then go to the other chamber to be considered.
The House has passed many bills, with the Senate lagging in addressing issues important to Representatives. For example, the House passed the “no eminent domain for private gain” with overwhelming bi-partisan support, but the Senate immediately changed the bill to be completely different from what the House had passed.
Here are a few of the Bills passed by the House and sent to the Senate.
Tough on Crime Agenda
The problem is that current loopholes and excessive judicial discretion have allowed career criminals to return to the streets shortly after arrest.
HF 2505, The Pretrial Accountability and Bail Reform Act addresses this problem by requiring:
• Justification for Deviation: Any judge who departs from the established bail schedule must document their reasoning on the record.
• Restricting ‘Promise to Appear’ (PTA): will only be allowed if an individual has been charged with a nonviolent, nondrug-related misdemeanor.
• Fact-Checking Pretrial Release: Requires the Iowa Department of Corrections to independently verify claims before release.
• Inflation-Adjusted Bail Schedules: Require an update to the statewide bail.
HF 2542, “Three-and-Done” Strike System creates a cumulative strike system for repeat offenders, triggering a mandatory minimum 20-year sentence without parole once a career criminal reaches three full strikes.
One of the questions I am frequently asked at election time is “Which judges are worth retaining?” The following bill (if passed by the Senate) will help.
HF 2719, Judicial Performance Information is a dashboard providing data for the public. The data would include:
• Bond & Sentencing Decisions: How often a judge departs from standard bail schedules, releases a person on their own recognizance for violent vs. nonviolent crimes, and how often a judge issues sentences below statutory or prosecutorial recommendations.
• Legal Accuracy: The frequency with which a judge’s decisions are overturned by higher courts for legal errors.
• Efficiency: How quickly a judge rules on motions and cases.
Other Issues
HF 2529, Right to Repair DEF Systems of Farm Equipment gives farmers and ranchers the ability to repair equipment they own. It also requires manufacturers to make the same diagnostic tools and software available to owners that they provide to authorized dealers.
HF 2711, Strengthening Merit and Fairness in Iowa removes outdated “affirmative action” mandates from the Iowa Code. We are replacing contract requirement language concerning “minorities, women, and disadvantaged business enterprises” with “Iowa-based businesses.” By removing identity-based requirements, we are protecting the integrity of our institutions and proving that in Iowa, your character and your competence are what matter most.
Community Forums
I meet regularly with city councils to discuss issues important to our district. As a result of one of those meetings last Friday, several mayors and city administrators asked that I join them for forums they will host in their communities. The first of those forums will be held in Center Point Friday, March 20, from 5-7 p.m. at City Hall.
Additional forums are being scheduled for Mount Vernon, Springville, Palo, and other cities. Watch for announcements and invitations from your local officials.
About Energy and Water
My Data Center bill and separate Water bill is being considered in the House as I write this. This is critically important legislation for our district and state.
Our electric grid, our water usage and water quality have been huge concerns for me for the past several years. A couple of years ago I organized an educational event for legislators from several states at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Denver. We explored how to address expected power shortages, brownouts, and blackouts.
Did you know that projections are that Iowa’s grid will begin to experience brownouts and blackouts as soon as 2028? In fact, experts believe Iowa is in the most “High Risk” area in the country to experience power shortages. At the end of this article are websites for you to gather additional information.
Under the label “economic development” politicians engage in a mad rush to bring data centers and other huge energy users and water users to Iowa. Unfortunately, as they take their victory laps, they seldom consider the long-term effects on our citizens and environment. In fact, an industry can locate to Iowa (often receiving huge tax incentives) and never disclose how much energy it will take from the grid or how much water it will pull from our aquifer. My data center bill and my water bill will force industry to tell us in advance what resources they will consume. We in Linn County should be very concerned about our energy and water situation. In the meantime, several large companies have lined up to oppose my bills requiring them to report the resources they are consuming.
Another contributor to the looming energy crisis is that utilities have been incentivized to build “weather-dependent” (intermittent) generation sources that are often not operating efficiently at periods of peak demand. These include wind, solar, and battery storage. North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) Long-Term Reliability Assessment (LTRA) declares the “continuing shift in the resource mix toward weather-dependent resources and less fuel diversity increases risks of supply shortfalls during winter months.”
Check it out in the links below. You too, will be concerned.
Stay tuned for more information and give me your feedback at [email protected]
North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
Each year, NERC is responsible for independently assessing and reporting on the overall reliability, adequacy, and associated risks that could impact the upcoming summer and winter seasons as well as the long-term, 10-year period.
Long-Term Reliability Assessment (LTRA)
2025 assessment updated February 24, 2026
https://www.nerc.com/globalassets/our-work/assessments/nerc_ltra_2025.pdf