Legislature Pushes Toward Adjournment

Standing committees of the legislature held their final meetings of the year as Democratic leaders this week pushed toward adjournment, perhaps in two weeks.

One committee chair said the goal for adjournment is April 9 or 10 - right before Easter. Adjourning early would save taxpayers money because lawmakers are paid per diem for each day they are at the Capitol.

The Iowa House and Senate agreed to a shortened debate calendar and enforced a funnel deadline of this Friday, instead of April 10, to get the other chamber's bills out of committee. Those that had not cleared a committee on the other side would be considered dead for the remainder of the session.

A bill about government transparency, proposed by Iowans for Tax Relief and Republicans and considered one of the most bipartisan bills of the session, died Thursday in the legislative funnel.

The Senate State Government Committee on Thursday evening declined to take up House File 801, which would have established a searchable budget database Web site for the public to look up their tax rate and how their taxpayer dollars are being spent. The failure to pass the bill came just two days after it was approved 96-3 in the Iowa House.

A bill that would have required Iowa health clubs to have defibrillators and one employee during regular business hours trained in CPR and the use of the defibrillator caused a firestorm of controversy Wednesday night, eventually leading the House Human Resources Committee to indefinitely table it.

Senate File 443 would have cost each health club $1,500 to $3,000 for a defibrillator and $35 for CPR training by the American Red Cross. But both Democrats and Republicans on the committee questioned the impact the bill would have on 24/7 health clubs that aren't always staffed.

Meanwhile, a bill aimed at making Iowa's roads friendlier to bicyclists also died this week. Senate File 117 would have prohibited motorists from depriving a bicyclist full use of a lane, and said drivers shall pass to the left at a safe distance, must maintain a distance of at least five fee,t and are prohibited from following a bicycle more closely than is reasonable and prudent.

House Democratic leaders had reassigned the bill from transportation to the Human Resources Committee in a last-ditch attempt to save it, but chair Mark Smith declined to take up the bill Wednesday night in the committee's final meeting.