Update From the House for District 80 – March 8, 2019

Thank you Indian Hills for meeting with me on Tuesday!

Thank you Indian Hills for meeting with me on Tuesday!

by Holly Brink

I am happy to say that I have made it through my first funnel week here in the House. What a busy week it was.  Throughout this week, my colleagues and I have be going through the bills we have drafted earlier this session, running several subcommittee meetings on them and presenting  them in committees so we can bring the them up to the floor for general discussion.

I’m not the only one from Oskaloosa having a thrilling week. This Tuesday, our boys came to Wells Fargo and upset Marion at the Boys State Basketball Tournament in Des Moines, 51-49. Thursday they beat Winterset 48-42 and will be playing Norwalk in the finals Friday nice! Go Osky!

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure to see Indian Hills Community College at the Iowa Association of Community College Trustees Day on the Hill. With two locations within Iowa District 80, Ottumwa and Centerville, Indian Hills provides a wide range of educational and vocational opportunities to prepare our communities youth for the future. I appreciated having them here and the time they gave to speak with me.

Wednesday, I led a subcommittee regarding HSB 238 for the Human Resources Committee. If signed into law, HSB 238 will establish a new rule for Medicaid providers who dispense prescription drugs in partial doses. Under the current law, partial fulfilments of a full prescription may have different costs which, when added together for each partial fulfillment, may have a higher cost than the fulfilment of a full prescription. HSB 238 would require that the sum of all partial prescription fulfillments must not exceed the cost of a full prescription. The implementation of the rule will create a fairer system that will reduce unnecessary costs to the consumer.

In the coming week, I will continue to gather information and working with the department of education to continue moving HF592 ahead. I’ll be working on the subcommittee with Representatives Kerr (R) of Louisa and Mascher (D) of Johnson on HF 592. HF 592 works as a successor of my bill HF 184, whereas HF 184 served to address preschool enrollment eligibility, HF 592 serves to make budget appropriations reforms. Once enacted, HF 592 will expand state funding to expand from four year-olds to include five year-olds. The expansion of funding eligibility would allocate much needed funding for early childhood education, allowing for educators to provide crucial resources for their curriculum. As early education is vital for a lifelong career of learning, it is necessary to invest in it for a proper start.

I was also honored to be part to work on a variety of other bills this week that we passed out of subcommittee and full committee and will continue to be working on getting ready for the floor. As of now, I have been assigned to a total of 30 subcommittees, 16 of which I chair. Up to date with the debate calendar, I will have three bills I will be managing once they come to the floor.

As we wrap up funnel week in the House, we will begin shifting gears to the floor debates that will be coming shortly. As the floor manager of several bills, I am thrilled to start bringing bills to the House floor! If you have any questions or concerns about any issues or legislation, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you all for your support and I hope I can see you at the next legislative forums.

Holly Brink
State Representative, Iowa District 80
(641)295-7111
Holly.brink@legis.iowa.gov

Posted by on Mar 9 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.

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