(Radio Iowa) – A bipartisan group of House members has approved one of Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s priorities — a bill that would require adults and juveniles arrested for a serious crime in Iowa to submit a D-N-A sample. Republican Representative Bill Gustoff of Des Moines says the sample would not be a full D-N-A genome, but would have critical data that’s unique to the person.

“It’s a court-tested, effective tool that has help solve literally thousands of crimes and bring closure to the victims of violent crimes and their families in over 30 states,” Gustoff said. Nine of the attorney general’s fellow Republicans joined most House Democrats in opposing the bill. Representative Charley Thomson, a Republican from Charles City, says there’s no doubt D-N-A is a powerful tool for law enforcement, but the bill requires an unconstitutional search of a person who’s been arrested.

“It’s not a fingerprint,” Thomson said. “It’s a library and it’ll be another brick in our digital prison.” Under current Iowa law, D-N-A is collected when someone is convicted of an aggravated misdemeanor or a felony, but not when they are arrested. The bill to collect D-N-A samples from anyone arrested for felonies or aggravated misdemeanors now goes to the Senate for review.