The Rozenboom Report – February 4, 2017
Sen. Ken Rozenboom met with members of the Oskaloosa FFA this past week.
Senate File 130, the deappropriations bill, was signed by the Governor on Wednesday. This was a bill to fix the $118 million budget shortfall for the current 2016 – 2017 fiscal year. It passed out of the Senate last week and the House of Representatives passed it on Monday. Now that this is out of the way we can begin work on this year’s budget.
On late Thursday afternoon the Senate passed the school funding bill. This proposal raises K-12 spending for next year by $40 million from the this year. Our schools have been disappointed in the past when they were promised a certain amount of money, only for the legislature to not deliver on the promise. We cannot and will not do that to our schools again. We also were committed to setting supplemental state aid (SSA) early in the session to help our school districts budget and plan. We want to promise them an amount we know we can afford so they can effectively plan their budget. There will also be another school funding bill coming forward that will address the inequities in school funding across the state, including the high transportation cost of rural school districts. Work continues on that plan.
This week a bipartisan group of Iowa senators passed an important piece of legislation that permits employers to use hair to test employees or prospective employees for drug use. Current Iowa law provides for other options for drug testing but did not specifically allow hair to be tested. This change will align Iowa with 47 other states that permit the use of hair for drug testing, and is a reasonable approach to employee drug testing.
Sen. Ken Rozenboom met with members of the North Mahaska FFA this past week.
This bill allows employers the flexibility to use hair in addition to blood or other means to test employees for drug use. Hair testing can be more accurate and provide results covering a longer period of time to make employers more confident in the test results. Studies have shown certain hair testing measures are 5 to 10 times more effective than other types of drug testing.
Many Iowa job creators supported this update to Iowa’s employee drug testing laws because they invest significant resources in identifying, training, and compensating their employees. Making one simple change to the drug testing laws allows them greater flexibility and confidence in the quality of their workforce.
Senate File 2 cleared the full Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday and went to the full Senate for debate on Thursday. The bill passed on a 30 – 20 vote after lengthy debate. This legislation will create a new state family planning program, eliminating the current family planning waiver that currently goes to organizations that perform abortions. The new program opens up many new opportunities for people to receive all their primary health care needs from more than 200 Medicaid waiver eligible clinics. The only clinics excluded in this bill are those that perform abortions.
One of the reasons I supported this legislation is it creates more access for women to receive their health care needs. These new providers are federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics. This would equate to more than 800 providers billed for services and medications including hospitals, medical centers, clinics, gynecologists, primary care physicians, advanced registered nurse practitioners and pharmacies, according to the Department of Human Services.
Senate Republicans are a pro-life caucus and this legislation is consistent with our long-standing position. Senate File 2 offers many Iowans the confidence that their tax dollars are not being spent in a way that violates their conscience, while providing more healthcare choices for more women.
