The Dickey Dispatch – April 5th 2024
by Senator Adrian Dickey
Good afternoon Senate District 44! Week 13 passed as fast as the rest. Just 2 weeks of session remain.
Much of the debate this week in the Senate revolved around confirmations. One of the job duties unique to the Senate is the confirmation of governor appointees. Each year the governor appoints people as the head of departments or to various boards and commissions. That required me to call and interview many of these candidates to discuss their qualifications, goals, and why they desire their appointment, just like any other job interview.
On Tuesday the Senate passed HF 2487. It is an update to the law surrounding teacher-student relationships and adds a definition and prohibition against teachers grooming students. Unfortunately, these incidents do occur and the law must keep pace to ensure Iowa students are as safe as possible at school. This bill returns to the House for their approval of the updates made by the Senate.
Also on Tuesday the Iowa Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 2004, a proposal to put a flat tax into the Iowa Constitution and provide more protections for Iowans from future tax increases. A constitutional amendment requires it to pass two consecutive General Assemblies before going before the people of Iowa for a vote. Iowans have shown overwhelming support for requiring at two-thirds supermajority to increase tax rates in Iowa and they also have shown strong support for putting a flat tax in the constitution. Iowans know this constitutional amendment would protect them from unfair tax increases, keep the tax code simpler, and limit irresponsible budgeting in future legislatures. However, Democrats couldn’t deny their unquenchable thirst for your money and every Democrat voted against the proposal in the Iowa Senate. In the 4 years that I have served in the Iowa Senate, Senate Republicans have been focused on protecting taxpayers by passing historic measure after historic measure focused on tax relief for Iowa families. I was proud to support this bill and it now goes to the Iowa House for their consideration.
Thursday evening I attended the Family Champions dinner. What made this event extra special was that Governor Reynolds chose to sign the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law at that event. It truly was a special evening protecting ALL religious freedoms in our GREAT state and I was honored to be on stage with Governor Reynolds as this special bill signing took place.
On Wednesday we debated SF 2412. A new tactic of trial attorneys is to sue the manufacturer of Roundup, which is a commonly used herbicide on many farms across the state, over not having a certain label on the product. The label that must be used on Roundup is determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This agency is the same one trying to regulate every farm pond in America, so if there was even a remote problem with Roundup, the EPA would regulate it as strictly as possible. Further, if the manufacturer does not use the label that is mandated by the EPA, it cannot sell the product in the United States. The stupidity is that the label they are being sued over is a label that the EPA has approved and does NOT allow the manufacturer to change!
This is not an endorsement on my behalf of Roundup or any sort of farm practices, so please do not flood my inbox on that issue. SF 2412 simply states manufacturers cannot be sued for not having a label on their product that the US Government will not allow them to put on their product. My campaign slogan has always been “protecting what common sense looks like” and this is about as common sense as it gets. However, I have heard so many wild claims that we are not allowing farmers to sue if they get sick. Despite the false rhetoric that Democrats and these greedy trial attorneys searching for their next lottery ticket are spreading, nothing in this bill prevents a lawsuit if a product is found to actually cause cancer. It just states a manufacturer cannot be sued over a label if their product is labeled as required under federal law and regulated by the EPA.
In closing, on Monday I made a Point of Personal Privilege on the Senate floor. These points are allowed at the end of the day and many Senators use them to talk about anything they desire. I rarely make one, in fact, I do not recall doing so anytime this year. However last Saturday, the Biden administration announced that Sunday was the National Transgender Day of Visibility. My disgust with hearing this had nothing to do with transgenders, rather how President Biden insulted Christians and attacked Christianity, by stating that anything other than Easter Sunday would be known as a national day of whatever. The Christian faith celebrates 2 days a year, Easter Sunday and Christmas, with the holiest day of the year for Christians being Easter Sunday.
The Transgender and the LGBTQ community have 140 days – yes, 140 days – on this year’s calendar celebrating their issues. That is 1 out of every 2.6 days! A small sample of these are the Aromantic Spectrum Awareness week, a Pansexual and Panromantic Awareness Day, National Drag Day, Genderfluid Visibility Week, Intersex Awareness Day, National Pronoun Day, Agender Pride Day, LGBTQIA+ Awareness Week, Lesbian Visibility Day, and the Non-binary People Day to name a few. In addition, there are 3 complete months dedicated to the Transgender and LGBTQ communities with the entire month of June being PRIDE Month, the entire month of October being LGBT History Month, and the entire month of November being Trans Awareness Month.
Is it too much to ask to let Christians have Easter Sunday?
Let me ask you this, what would the response be is a Republican President declared that ANYTHING to be identified as the national day of whatever on the third Monday in January? If they did, the outcry would be deafening, as it should be because we all know the third Monday in January is Dr. Martin Luther King Day. No one should disgrace that day or any other of our significantly established national holidays as anything other than what we have always celebrated them for.
As the session is coming to an end, I hope the next few editions of the Dickey Dispatch are filled with a few more GREAT things we are doing for Iowans.
