In two distinct moves toward adjournment of the Iowa legislature despite a lack of agreement, Statehouse Republicans on Tuesday decided upon the size of the budget pie while the Democratic-led Senate pushed ahead with what’s usually the final bill of the year before adjourning for the week.

“This starts our movement to hopefully adjourn the session,” said Senate Appropriations Chair Bob Dvorsky (D-Coralville). “We don’t have any more bills to do anything with.”

Iowa’s state general-fund budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 will be less than $6 billion, according to an agreement reached Tuesday by Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate and Governor Terry Branstad.

The move represents one step toward agreement and eventual adjournment of the 2011 legislative session. However, no Democrats were at the table in determining the size of the budget pie, and they control the Iowa Senate.

The Iowa Senate on Wednesday voted 38-12 for a gambling bill that calls for a report on Internet poker and lifts the requirement that Iowa casinos face a vote of the people every eight years.

“There are good parts of this bill and other parts that give me grave concern,” said Senator Brad Zaun (R-Urbandale). “The seven years I’ve been down here, we’ve talked about the referendums, horse racing, but never could any of these bills survive and stand on its own two feet.”

Senate File 526 would have the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission produce a report that would look further into the issue of Internet poker. The bill originally would have legalized Internet poker, but Zaun credited the change to an Iowa poll that showed 73 percent of Iowans are opposed to legalizing Internet gambling.

It was the first bill called up in the morning on the first day lawmakers were eligible to vote on a new map of congressional and legislative districts.

After it was taken up, the Iowa House took only a few minutes to approve the map on a 91-7 vote.

The Senate quickly followed suit, swiftly approving House File 682 on a 48-1 vote and sending it to Governor Terry Branstad.

The new map will have sweeping implications on Iowa’s political landscape for the next decade. Some incumbents will be pitted against one another, others will move, some will hang it up, and newcomers will see an opportunity to run for political office.

House Republican leaders said Thursday that they do not support or intend to pass a bill that would allow Iowa to receive $14.5 million in federal money for extended unemployment benefits. Iowa is one of nine states that have yet to request the benefits.

“The Labor Committee is going to look at that, but the House Republican caucus is not interested in making it harder to be an employer in the state of Iowa,” said House Speaker Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha). “What’s going on with unemployment compensation right now is making it harder to be an employer.”

The Iowa Senate approved the measure on a 27-22 vote this week. The money would benefit the more than 7,000 Iowans who have been out of work for more than a year. Democrats urged the House and governor to act on Senate File 303 by March 10, or they said the state will almost certainly lose the $14.5 million in federal help for the unemployed.

Iowa will join Idaho and Indiana as the only states whose high courts have only men, following Governor Terry Branstad’s February 23 appointment of Pleasant Valley attorney Thomas Waterman, Iowa Court of Appeals Judge Edward Mansfield, and Iowa District Court Judge Bruce Zager to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Branstad said the 51-year-old Waterman, an attorney in the Quad Cities law firm Lane & Waterman, brings private-sector experience to the Supreme Court. He said 58-year-old Zager, of Waterloo, brings both private-practice experience and district-court knowledge to the Supreme Court. And he said 53-year-old Mansfield, of Des Moines, brings both private-practice experience and court-of-appeals knowledge to the Supreme Court.