Iowa House District 21 Representative Tom Moore, Thursday, issued his weekly legislative update, “On the issues.” Moore, a Republican from Griswold, said in his report, “On Wednesday night the House passed SF 342, voting 63-30, to support Iowa Law Enforcement. This is a comprehensive bill, and some of the provisions are detailed below…”

·     Allows peace officers and their families to join the safe at home program, which keeps their name and address private.

·     Clarifies that shining a laser in another person’s eyes is assault.

·     Increases penalties for harassing peace officers, blocking roadways, disorderly conduct, and damaging property.

·     Protects state employees from civil lawsuits when they are acting within the law.

·     Protects drivers from civil lawsuits if they are exercising due care and injure someone blocking the road.

·     Makes changes to disability benefits to ensure better medical care and services to peace officers.

·     Allows peace officers to use accrued sick leave to pay for health insurance after retirement.

·     Requires that local governments allow law enforcement to enforce Iowa laws.

·     Increases penalties for rioting.

·     Clarifies that payments for medical care and vacation cannot be counted against a disability pension.”

Bills of Note

SF 546– Private Instruction Drivers Education: 2011 saw the adoption of private instruction monitored by the DOT for homeschool children. This bill clarifies that private instruction as defined by code, by any parent or guardian, qualifies as “competent private instruction.” It also changes certain provisions of parental drivers education to best utilize time within the course, maintain rigorous standards, make parentally supervised drive time equitable, and allow both parents to teach their child. On Monday, this bill passed the House 59-33. It still needs to pass the Iowa Senate.

HF 857– Butchery Fund: This bill creates a butchery fund within the Iowa Economic Development Authority. This will provide funding for new butchery businesses and meat lockers, existing facilities wishing to expand or upgrade, and a task force will be established to explore adding butchery programs to our community colleges and universities. We hope this will spur economic development in the butchery field, as Iowa needs more available lockers and butchers. Tuesday, this bill passed the House with a vote of 91-0.

HF 855– Adoptee Birth Certificates: This bill allows adoptees to obtain a copy of their birth certificates, and it allows biological parents to decide how much information should be provided to the adoptee. I ran this bill a couple years ago but did not have the support. After the change in the makeup of the House; it passed the House with a vote of 91-0.

Economic Development Budget

Representative Moore said also, “This week the Appropriations Committee passed the Economic Development Budget. This budget is subject to change during further negotiation with the Senate, but it now contains the following…”

·     A total of $78 million for Iowa’s economic development

·     $3 million for the Iowa Child Care Challenge Fund

·     $1.2 million for regional tourism and marketing

·     $750,000 for local meat processing businesses

·     $1.8 million for the Jobs Training Program

Moore on this Week: ” We spent much of this week debating bills and preparing to debate bills. The budget committees have also been meeting, trying to hammer out our yearly budget. It is a long process, since we have to deliberate within our chamber on the ideal budget numbers, and then negotiate with the Senate over the final budget.”