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Representative Ro Foege
Report from the Iowa Legislature
March 7, 2004
Kill Bill
We are now at the mid-point of this legislative session, and far too little has been accomplished. No work has been done yet on important measures such as extending the successful class size reduction program, or on helping seniors with their health care needs. We have not yet debated the utility tax bill. If the legislature fails to act, the tax on utility bills will go up this summer from 2% to 5%. And we have not yet discussed finding a reliable and sufficient source of funding for our economic growth initiative, the Iowa Values Program.
Last week was “funnel week.” The “funnel” is the deadline for bills to come out of committee if they are to stay alive for the session. Funnel week allowed a lot of good bills to die, including a bill (HF2004) that would have allowed local communities to adopt stronger or more stringent restrictions on smoking. I co-sponsored the bill, along with Rep. Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, after conferring with leaders of several cities and towns.
Iowa is a state that believes in local control. Smoking in public places is an important quality of life and health issue, and local governments should have a say in the matter. California, which has a ban on smoking in public places, has seen a 19.5% reduction in lung cancer and smoking rates have dropped by 27%. Although several communities in Iowa passed smoking bans in public facilities over the past few years, they were overturned by Iowa courts, because the bans were in conflict with state law. Our bipartisan bill does not ban smoking in public places. It simply allows local governments, cities or counties, to establish smoking ordinances as they and their constituents would like.
For any bill to move forward, it must be approved by a sub-committee before the full committee debates the measure. Usually, sub-committees are made up of three people, and when two vote for a bill in sub-committee, it moves on to the full committee of 21 members. Last week, the Chairman of the sub-committee to which HF 2004 had been assigned hastily called a meeting. It surprised me to find that the lounge area behind the House Chambers, where the meeting was held, was jammed with people, including a number of newspaper reporters and radio journalists with their microphones. The Iowa Attorney General, Tom Miller, was there to vigorously endorse our bill, saying it should easily win legislative approval as a non-controversial bill. Attorney General Miller told the gathering that six states prohibit smoking in restaurants, and another 27 state have laws similar to the Foege-Paulsen proposal.
The tobacco industry lobbyists in the room would hear none of that. They were adamant in their opposition to the bill. Following this lively discussion, Chairman Jim Hahn, R-Muscatine, decided not to even offer the other two members of the sub-committee an opportunity to sign the bill. These other members, Rep. Donovan Olson, D-Boone and Rep. Bill Schickel, R-Mason City, had agreed that the bill had great merit, and it should moved on in the legislative process. It should be noted that Rep. Olson was a Boone County Board of Supervisor, and Rep. Schickel was the Mayor of Mason City prior to their service in the Iowa House. However, in spite of the approval of the two sub-committee members, they were not given the opportunity to sign the official document to move the bill.
In school we learn “how a bill becomes a law”. This is a lesson reminiscent of the recent movie, “Kill Bill”, where a bill is killed by the committee chair, even when the majority of the committee wants to pass it.
On a happier note, I look forward to the coming week, when on Tuesday we commemorate the sesquicentennial anniversary of Cornell College. All Iowans can take great pride in the many accomplishments of Cornell College as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the United States. And on Wednesday we will honor Dr. Norm Nielsen, who is retiring this year after serving so successfully as president of Kirkwood Community College for the last 26 years.
I look forward to hearing from constituents about the work of the Iowa Legislature.
You can write me at the State Capitol, Des
Moines, IA 50319; call 515/281-7328 or e-mail me at
ro.foege@legis.state.ia.us.
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