Adjournment Standoff
The Iowa Legislature was to have adjourned for the year last Friday; at least that’s what the schedule said, since that was the day per diem expense payments to lawmakers ended. And sessions tend to go at least a week beyond that, in the best of situations.
The last thing typically to be approved is the budget…and that is where there are a couple of potholes on the road to adjournment.
The first is the public standoff between the Governor and Republicans in the Senate on one side, the Republicans in the House on the other. It bubbled to the surface publicly after Speaker Pat Grassley said House members voted for area education agency reform last year with a promise there’d be a pool of funds for paraeducators this year. The Governor then issued a statement saying no such deal was made and that she was concerned about the total budget amount as opposed to every line item. The fact that there were, in essence, dueling statements is the unique part of it; that stuff is typically kept behind closed doors. At some point, both sides will find a way to save face, call the supposed promise a misunderstanding, and off we go. But it hasn’t happened yet.
The second is in the Senate, where a dozen Republicans are not happy with their leadership for again failing to bring up a bill on limiting eminent domain, specifically for carbon capture pipelines. The House is in sync with the general public on this one, but the Senate leaders won’t even bring up their watered down bill. So the dozen say they won’t vote for a budget unless the eminent domain bill is brought up for a vote. Even with a huge majority in the Senate, that many defectors means no budget will be passed.
This is actually more drama than we usually get from the folks who work under the golden dome in Des Moines. Depending on how it plays out, they might finish up in time for Mother’s Day. But recall one statehouse reporter told us on KXEL a month ago he feared adjournment might not be until Memorial Day.
As always, things move slowly until it all comes together in a few hours. But there’s no sign of that just yet.
