Hite Capitol Update: March 7, 2019

Rep. Dustin Hite at the Iowa House - March 7, 2019. (submitted photo)

Rep. Dustin Hite at the Iowa House – March 7, 2019. (submitted photo)

by Dustin Hite

This past week was what is referred to as “funnel week” by the members of the Iowa Legislature. This “funnel” is a rule stating that by Friday, March 8, all House bills must be reported out of House Committees. This rule is put in place to ensure State Government is working efficiently and getting things done in a timely manner. That being said, it always leads to very busy week leading up to the deadline, and my first funnel week was no exception. In total, I served on ten subcommittees that met this week, and was the chair of five of them. On top of this, I was a part of seven full committee meetings that passed a total of 36 pieces of legislation on to the House floor.

The bulk of the bills I voted to pass came from the Judiciary Committee. I am very proud of my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee for the hard-work we have all put in to pass good legislation. These efforts have also been predominantly bipartisan, with 90% of the bills passed out of Judiciary receiving support from both sides of the aisle. I know Iowans would be proud of their lawmaker’s ability to work together despite differences in opinion.

One example of bipartisanship comes in the form of House Study Bill 68. This bill is one of the more prominent ones working through the legislature this year, and it deals with felon voting rights restoration. This was a proposal brought forward by the Governor in her Condition of the State address early in Session, and I am happy to report the bill received unanimous support in front of the Judiciary Committee this week. It will now move to the House Floor for a vote.

Fortunately, many high priority bills were able to survive the first funnel. The SAVE extension bill (HF 546), children’s mental health bill (HSB 206), Second Amendment rights joint resolution (HJR 3), and expanded access to birth control bill (HSB 214) all made it through funnel week and remain alive. At the same time, some bad legislation was killed, such as a bill for government –run healthcare (HF 96), bills that would infringe on homeschool freedom (HF 100, 182, 272), and various bills that would restrict Second Amendment Rights.

Despite being busy this week, I still had time to meet with many members of the district. I would like to thank the Tulip Queen, Olivia Vander Leest, and her court (Mary Kate Bandstra, Camryn Huyser, Isabella Baugh, and Emily Schreur) for bringing Dutch Letters for all the members of the Legislature. They definitely made me the most popular Representative that day. I also welcomed Terry Pollard, Pastor at the New Sharon United Methodist Church, to give the prayer on Wednesday. Finally, I got to speak to some nursing students from Indian Hills when they came to visit for Iowa Association of Community Colleges Trustees Day on the Hill.

Posted by on Mar 8 2019. Filed under Local News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed

         

Search Archive

Search by Date
Search by Category
Search with Google
Log in | Copyright by Oskaloosa News