Capital Highlights

The Bottle Bill
Over the last few weeks the House has been discussing ways to improve the recycling measures in our state. A bill was proposed earlier in session which would have repealed the “bottle bill” in order to replace it with different recycling laws. I have done a fair amount of research on this issue and I have reached a few conclusions after discussions with my constituents. I believe that at this point it is in the best interests of Iowa to keep the bottle bill. In the future, we might even choose to expand this law to include juice and sports drink bottles. We may also consider implementing an increase in the redemption and deposit fees. The current bottle bill only takes care of 3% of Iowa’s waste. We need to keep more waste out of the landfills by increasing the incentives for recycling. In addition to helping with the recycling process, the bottle bill has become a means for communities to fundraise for various activities, and I believe this should be allowed to continue. In the future, it may be in the best interest of Iowa to allow grocery stores to opt-out of the redemption process. This should not cause an issue because many Can Redemption centers exist across the state which could be expanded to fulfill the need in areas where a grocery store does not participate. Recycling legislation will not be changing this year, but in the future we will continue the discussion so that Iowa can improve its recycling measures.
Bills of Interest
SF 438
This bill prohibits any government entity, such as the state, a public school, political subdivision or board, from mandating that a bidder who is granted the rights to a project must sign a project labor agreement (PLA). This bill does not apply to private projects which do not utilize tax dollars. The purpose of this bill is to prevent discrimination in the process of selecting bidders for public projects. Current law allows public projects to mandate that a project labor agreement be signed by a bidder, and also allows the use of prequalification requirements that would restrict potential bidders. Examples of “prequalification” include experience, size of the company and union membership. SF 438 restricts public projects from using PLA’s or pre-qualifications in order to restore the standard of lowest responsible bidder when contracting public projects. This bill will improve the public contracting system and allow the best contractors to be hired for state-funded projects.
SF 240
SF 240 requires the Department of Education to issue a Request for Proposal to find a vendor to administer a new statewide assessment starting in the 2018/2019 school year. The Department must find an assessment that is aligned with Iowa academic standards and tests math and literacy in grades 3-8 and high school and science in grades 5, 8, and 10. The Department must also consider costs, alignment, time required for the test, infrastructure and technology needs of districts. Choosing an assessment for the public schools of our state is a very important task that must be taken seriously. SF 240 is a step in the right direction to ensure that the best possible assessments are being used in Iowa schools.
SF 250
This bill authorizes the Department of Public Health to adopt rules that require facilities which perform mammograms to include information on breast density in the reports sent to all mammogram patients.  The reports shall include evidence-based information on dense breast tissue, the increased risk associated with dense breast tissue, and the effects of dense breast tissue on mammograms. The bill requires the DPH to have these rules in place by January 1, 2018. The purpose of this bill is to ensure that women are receiving all the necessary information relating to mammograms and the factors that affect accurate results, including breast density.