This week in the Administration and Regulation Appropriation Subcommittee We received our last group of presentations. We heard from the Department of Human Rights and low Racing and Gaming Commission. The Department of Human Rights is in the Executive Branch. Core priorities that we discussed are how to best empower lowans to become self-sufficient, more access to services, and how to improve the state’s criminal and juvenile justice system. We also heard from the low Racing & Gaming Commission on legislative priorities for the 2023 fiscal year. This commission licenses individuals associated with racing, gaming, sports wagering and fantasy sports in lowa.

Many discussions brought solutions to several bills that were debated on the House floor. The State Government committee passed HF 662 and it was debated on the floor. After careful consideration and hearing the concerns of colleagues, HF 662 passed the House. This bill is an act relating to the organization, structure, and functions of state government. This bill gives guidance on bathrooms and locker room requirements Please refer to the lowa GOP newsletter with more information on this bill.

The Education Committee proposed HF 370 which passed the House and will go onto the Senate. This bill is an act relating to entities supported in whole or in part by public moneys, including the sales of public bonds, the duties and responsibilities of the director and officers of school boards, the Department of Education, community colleges, Regents universities, and city and county conference boards.

In addition, HF 507 passed the House. I want to be clear that this bill requires that public funds act only in the best financial interest of the fund and its beneficiaries, and not make decisions based on a political agenda. This bill is a good bill for lowa as the House Republicans set out to pass a bill to protect low’s money from activist Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies.

It’s been nearly 40 years since lowa reorganized its state government. SF 514 is a bill to streamline government, increase efficiency, eliminate redundancies, save taxpayer dollars and ultimately ensure state government better serves the people. The goal of this bill is to shrink government from a bloated number of 37 state agencies, down to 16. No state services for lowans will be lost and no state employee will lose their jobs.

I would like to thank Representative Wulf on his leadership running HF 661 through the House floor. Serving on the Agriculture Committee myself, we have had great conversations on how this bill will benefit markets in lowa. This bill is an act providing for the issuance of annual statewide licenses for certain establishments offering food for sales, including license fees and including effective date provisions. This bill is good for lowans and good for the farmers markets around our state, because before vendors had to have a permit from each county and now this was replaced with one state license.

Rep. Meggers’ district, Iowa House District 54, includes all of Grundy and Hardin counties and several rural townships on the far western edge of Black Hawk County. He can be reached via email: joshua.meggers@legis.iowa.gov.