(Radio Iowa) – A Senate committee is expanding a House bill that would curb the emergency powers of Iowa governors, adding a plan that would keep state spending at the same rate if Iowa governors and the legislature don’t agree on a new state budget. Lawmakers face a July 1st deadline to enact a new 12-year spending plan for state government. Republican Senator Ken Rozenboom of Pella says it’s to avoid a government shutdown in Iowa.

“As we witness what goes on in D.C. with, what, three government shutdowns in the last few months and one currently underway — a partial shutdown, I think we’ve all remarked, we’ve all recognized that’s not what we do in Iowa,” Rozenboom said. “That’s not the place we want to be in.” One Republican on the panel criticized the concept. Democrats say the four states that have similar legislation on the books have Democrat governors and legislatures that are controlled by Republicans.

Senator Matt Blake, a Democrat from Johnston, says Republican legislators are hedging their bets that Democrat Rob Sand will be elected governor. “We have never failed at passing a budget. We have never had that happen, yet we are worried it’s going to happen now,” Black said. “The timing is very, very suspicious.”

Senator Sandy Salmon, a Republican from Janesville, says she supports the House-passed bill that forbid governors from ordering Iowans to take vaccines or ordering churches and businesses to close, but she voted no after the budget-related language was added to it.