The Statesman

This week was the first week after the funnel.   That first week results in an enormous amount of floor debate.  The House begins sending over bills to the Senate and Senate bills to the House.  The vast majority of bills passed this week were very non-controversial.  There were a lot of clean up bills or bills that clarify code.  I ran a bill this week that allows dealerships to pull two implements of husbandry from dealership to farm.  That is currently not allowed based on Iowa code.  That is an example of the types of non-controversial bills we passed.  
The Senate chose to not take up the coupling bill this week.  This inactivity is unfortunate as most people are working on their taxes and that deadline is rapidly approaching.   The coupling bill has always passed out of the Iowa House with large bipartisan support and I do not understand the rationale for it not being picked up in the Senate.  
Education funding continues to be in a holding position.  However, I sought out both a Republican and Democrat on the conference committee to gather their input and it looks as though we could have an agreement next week on school funding.  I am going to go out on a limb and guess that we are looking at a total package of right around 2.5%.
There were a series of second amendment bills that moved through the Iowa House this week.  The decision was to send all these bills out at once to the Senate and let them chose from which ones they would like to move forward.  I highly doubt any of these bills will continue to move forward.  
Most of my time has been spent on retiring the Underground Storage Tank Fund (UST).  This fund was created to help clean up leaking underground storage tanks in the state of Iowa.  The majority of these tanks have been cleaned up and there is enough money remaining in the account to not only clean up the remaining tanks but also clean up any incidentals moving forward.  The UST expires this year and it requires code language to cease the program and collection of the penny.  When this program expires, you will actually have a one cent gas tax decrease.   Everyone is in agreement to retire this program except for one group who is trying to insert themselves with new language into the equation.  If this group wants a new program for fuel infrastructure, they should bring forth new language and create a new program.  
Visitors this week:  Amy Norby, Raelonna Patrick, Kevin Petznick

Yours in District 51,

Josh Byrnes

Lake Mills Graphic

204 N. Mill Street
Lake Mills, IA 50450

Office Number: (641) 592-4222
Fax Number: (641) 592-6397

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