Legislation by the Numbers
The Legislative Service Agency, an non-profit entity designed to assist the Iowa Legislature regardless of who’s in charge, recently released its annual report on the 2021 session…the first of the 89th Iowa General Assembly.
The session met for 129 calendar days, from January 11 until adjournment on May 19.
A total of 1,592 bills were introduced…650 Senate files, and 942 House files…add to that 554 Study Bills, 276 in the Senate, and 278 in the House.
And you have to amend those bills…782 amendments were filed, 245 in the Senate and 537 in the House.
So of the 1,592 bills introduced…only 188 were passed…hardly more than 10 percent.
This year, of the 188 passed…the governor issued no item vetoes…and only vetoed one bill outright, SF 657 relating to loans originated by mortgage bankers. The governor likes the idea, but feels the issue should be considered more fully.
So if I read this right, more than one bill passed per calendar day during the session…on a par with similar sessions over the past five years.
