(Radio Iowa) – Negotiators are striking final deals on a more than nine-point-four BILLION dollar state budget and the 2025 Iowa legislative session could draw to a close tonight (Wednesday) or early tomorrow (Thursday). Legislators have already approved five bills laying out spending for several state agencies. The governor’s recommendation to spend a million dollars for University of Iowa research into the state’s rising cancer rate is in one of those bills. Republican Representative Austin Harris of Moulton says the million dollars will help build a blueprint for how to combat that. “It’s not a silver bullet. We don’t promise a silver bullet,” Harris said, “but I think we do promise a fight.”

Democrats like Representative Austin Baeth of Des Moines say the state should be spending far more on cancer research. “At a time when Elon Musk and his ‘tech bros’ are taking away our cancer research funding, we need to make it homegrown here in Iowa,” Baeth said.

Four state spending bills are on today’s (Wednesday’s debate agenda at the statehouse. And the governor’s plan to cut the tax Iowa businesses pay into the state Unemployment Trust Fund may be debated in the Senate.