Newsletter for Thursday, April 12, 2018Week 14 saw a significant slow down on the floor of the House as we dealt with background work on budget and tax reform issues ahead of introducing those bills.On Wednesday of this week the House Ways and Means Committee introduced the House tax reform ...
According to Ottoman statistics, in 1914 Palestine had a population of 657,000 Muslim Arabs, 81,000 Christian Arabs, and 59,000 Jews.With Easter fresh in mind, it is fitting we ask ourselves, who are the Palestinian Christians? And what are their origins that they outnumbered the Jews in ...
Newsletter for Thursday,April 5, 2018As week 13 comes to a close we are beginning behind the scenes work on the budget bills and a tax reform bill, and we debated a few bills on the floor.Notable bills:Senate File 481 - Ensuring safe communities - We debated this bill at length on Tuesday.This ...
In the LegislatureThis week the governor signed several bills sent to her by the Legislature, including the bill providing affordable health insurance options for Iowans, SF 2349. This is a very important step to help Iowans and allow for more health insurance options in our state.The Senate ...
With just a few weeks left in session, Republican lawmakers revived their plan for private school vouchers. Once fully implemented, this latest version would shift over $250 million in taxpayer dollars from public schools to private schools.It's a troubling development in the closing days of ...
This week the activities in the Senate seem to be slowing just a bit. The bills still eligible for debate are either getting signed by the governor, being bounced between the two chambers, or have found a silent place to rest for the remainder of the session. The final priorities will be ...
I once read something somewhere about how before the famous football player Brian Bosworth got famous he used to work for the Ford Motor Company. He said when he was working on the line he once attached a string with a bolt in the end and placed it in the from quarter panel. He also attached a ...
The Senate has efficiently moved bills along this week. This year's work seems to be flowing well in the Senate. Even though there have been areas of disagreement, common ground is overwhelmingly being found.Areas where common ground was found, but not limited to this week were: mental health, ...
U.S. News & World Report recently ranked Iowa "best state in the nation when it comes to infrastructure, healthcare, opportunity, and education." Although this ranking is something Iowa can be proud of it does not mean that improvements cannot be made, especially regarding our state's ...
This week Senate members started out with some disappointing news. However, our ability to swiftly and efficiently make leadership decisions while continuing to do the work of the people showed the caliber of the character the individuals of the Republican Senate Caucus.Since our first day, our ...