​Overview / Major Events
Week 7 began with less than two weeks on the calendar until the first legislative funnel deadline is reached.  While the funnel date is actually Friday, March 3, with the House and Senate normally completing their weekly business by COB Thursday, the functional funnel is Thursday, March 2.
 
In order for a piece of policy legislation to remain eligible for further consideration during the 2017 Session it needs to have cleared its committee of origin in at least one chamber. And, with much of the prior two weeks consumed with the collective bargaining debate and massive numbers of subcommittees and committees canceled in its wake, this week was a chaotic rush to keep legislation alive through hundreds of subcommittee meetings and dozens of committee meetings (that continue as of this writing).
 
Governor Branstad signs Collective Bargaining Reform
One day after it cleared the House and Senate, Governor Branstad on Friday signed the collective bargaining reform legislation at a “private” ceremony in his office. The “private” is put in quotes due to the actions of one lobbyist who saw fit to tweet out a picture of himself with the Governor at the bill signing. Needless to say, the presence of a lobbyist at the event sparked additional outrage on the House and Senate floor earlier this week.
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Overview / Major Events
This week has been completely dominated by simultaneous debate in the House and Senate on collective bargaining reform. After a well-attend public hearing on Monday (union members were out in force) both Chambers have spent most of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday debating the merits of the proposed reforms.

At the delivery of this newsletter, both the House and Senate used a parliamentary rule to end debate and set a “time certain” for a final vote on the legislation. Once the time certain arrives, ALL debate is stopped, all remaining amendments are voted on without any further debate, and the bill goes to final passage. It used to be an informal rule at the Iowa Capitol that the majority controls the agenda, but the minority controls the clock. However, in recent years the majority party has begun to exercise more control over the length of debate through the rules process.

It is clear Republicans WILL have the votes to pass collective bargaining reform in both Chambers and the issue resolved by the close of business Thursday.
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The House and Senate ramped up a well-coordinated effort to begin moving major pieces of “must do” legislation this week. After a somewhat bumpy start to the session in regards to reaching agreement on budget-balancing legislation to cut over $100 million from the current budget, House and Senate leaders (along with the Governor’s office) have come together in a tightly choreographed schedule designed to streamline approval of some BIG issues.
 
K-12 School Funding Completed in Session’s First 30 days
This week the General Assembly and Governor wrapped up the school funding debate with House passage of SF 166 on Monday and with the Governor’s signature of the legislation Wednesday.
 
SF 166 increases state spending on K-12 schools in FY18 by $40 million (by far the largest spending increase for any budget line item in the upcoming budget year).

State Preemption of Local Ordinances
The House Local Government Committee began work on HSB 92, an act that preempts local government’s ability to enact ordinances regarding minimum wage, consumer merchandise, or packaging materials. The legislation was spurred by a number of local governments enacting minimum wage increases in excess of the state minimum wage.

​Overview / Major Events
This week marked final resolution on the legislation to reduce state spending in the current fiscal year by around $100 million—with the House passing the bill on Monday (the Senate had done so late last week) and Governor Branstad signing the bill on Wednesday.
 
The spending reductions became necessary to satisfy the state’s spending limitation law that limits general fund spending to no more than 99% of estimated revenue (based on the December revenue estimate).
 
When the December 2016 revenue estimate came in lower than the estimate that was used to craft the FY17 budget, it became clear that spending reductions would be required to ensure spending would not exceed the legal limit once the books close on the 2017 budget year (which ends on June 30, 2017).
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