Legislative updates
Are you on our list? Common Good Iowa produces regular policy updates on the work of the Iowa Legislature before, during and after each legislative session. Subscribe here to have them delivered straight to your inbox.
January 29, 2024
Sheila Hansen, who manages government relations and early-childhood policy for Common Good Iowa, has a great new post up on our blog about the impacts of HF 2065, which would allow 16-year-olds to care for babies and toddlers without direct supervision. We're reposting it in this week's newsletter because it does such a great job of making real the potential risks of the legislation.
January 16, 2024
Last Tuesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds gave her Condition of the State address, and we heard a few promising notes in her remarks. She proposed raising teacher pay and extending the period of time some pregnant people can keep their Medicaid coverage after giving birth.
We also heard some sour notes, including a proposal to pare down services provided by Area Education Areas that threatens equal access to special education and other services across the state.
What we didn’t expect to hear was a reference to ourselves. But there it was. ...
Also:
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Governor's expensive new tax plan compounds unfairness in our tax system
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Glaring omission in the Governor’s address: feeding children
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New report tallies effects of failure to equip all children to succeed
January 20, 2023
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Action item: NO to vouchers. Legislative leaders are moving quickly — recklessly — to move Gov. Reynolds' plan for private-school vouchers. Please contact your state Representative and Senator today to tell them to oppose vouchers
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There's another threat making its way through the Capitol. HF 3 would restrict SNAP participants’ ability to make their own food choices, take food away from Iowans, and increase hunger and food insecurity in our state.
March 13, 2023
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For folks who care about equity and opportunity, Iowa legislative sessions have been tough for a while. But the level of meanspiritedness on display this session is next level — and heartbreaking.
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In the midst of a youth mental health crisis, HHS is abandoning its only source of nationally comparable data on the mental-health experiences of Iowa high school students — including those of transgender and nonbinary students.
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Lawmakers in both houses are moving to loosen protections for children in the workforce.
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SSB 1126 would phase out the individual income tax, and with it half the revenues available for the state's General Fund. Boosters of this draconian scheme should at the least be honest about what services they will cut to pay for it.
February 27, 2023
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Your voice is needed NOW to protect SNAP and Medicaid. House and Senate committees are debating bills this week that would increase hunger and limit health care by making it harder for eligible Iowans to apply for and receive SNAP and Medicaid. The biggest harms would be to Iowa's SNAP program.
February 17, 2023
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A Senate subcommittee this week approved a bill — wildly unpopular except among mostly out-of-state interests pushing a radical austerity agenda — that would increase hunger in our state by making it harder for eligible Iowans to apply for and receive SNAP.
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Iowa research giveaway sets record
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Employers risk little by stealing employee wages
February 10, 2023
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Instead of looking at ways to boost wages and work supports to attract more Iowans to the workforce, lawmakers instead are considering moves to increase child labor. Senate File 167 passed a Senate subcommittee on Thursday, with sweeping changes that reverse protections for minors in workplaces, from hours to types of work, and reducing liability for businesses in the case of accidents.
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HHS boosts Child Care Assistance
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Kids Count county data snapshots now available
February 3, 2023
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In the fourth week of the legislative session, we saw movement on a slate of alarming bills that would ratchet back protections and ramp up harms for trans children and adults in our state. Among them were bills that would force school staff to out children to their families, restrict or ban affirming classrooms materials and ban social emotional learning.
January 10, 2023
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CGI asks lawmakers to advance opportunity for every Iowan and set our state up for the future: Our legislative priorities