SF 488/SF 256 – Public Defense Omnibus  

SF 488/SF 256 is a Public Defense departmental bill. It allows properties to be leased to use for armory purposes for up to 30 years, rather than the current 20 years. It amends the Iowa Code of Military Justice so that military commanders [Grade Colonel/06] can hold service members accountable if they commit offenses while off duty when there is a nexus between military service and the offense (e.g., sexual harassment, sexual assault involving two service members). It allows the Adjutant General to include in the annual report on certain offenses the number of sexual abuse cases reported to the U.S. Department of Defense that are not otherwise required to be reported.

It also enhances the popular education benefits that help the Guard recruit and retain members. The bill:

• Requires the Adjutant General to submit an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature by December 31 listing the science, technology, engineering and math-related career fields the Iowa National Guard plans to focus on in providing educational incentives using funds available for that fiscal year.
• Creates a new Code section 261.86A that establishes two recruitment and incentive programs to recruit or retain individuals who have completed or are pursuing training in science, technology, engineering and math-related military occupational specialties or Air Force specialty codes. The Adjutant General may expend appropriated funds that remain unencumbered or unobligated at the close of a fiscal year in the following fiscal year for recruitment and retention programs. 
• Allows the Adjutant General to expend unencumbered or unobligated funds in the Iowa National Guard Service Scholarship programs [Code 261.86, subsection 6] to recruit or retain individuals by offering either a student loan repayment program or a master’s degree scholarship award program that complies with the federal Edith Nourse Rogers STEM scholarship program.
• Establishes a National Guard student loan repayment program to be administered by the College Student Aid Commission, and sets requirements for applicants and for loan-repayment awards.
• Sets requirements for the master’s degree scholarship program. [2/25: short form]

SF 489/SSB 1094—Public Safety Equipment Fund

SF 489/SSB 1094 is a Department of Public Safety (DPS) proposal creating a Public Safety Equipment Fund. Moneys in the fund consist of appropriations or deposits into the new fund. DPS is authorized to designate moneys in the fund for the future purchase, maintenance and replacement of equipment used by DPS. Money in the fund will not revert. DPS will submit a report to the co-chairs and ranking members of the joint appropriations subcommittee on Justice System and to Legislative Services Agency on or before December 31 of each year. The report will list all expenditures made in the previous fiscal a year. The report will list the carry over amount in the fund and how the department used it in the current fiscal year, as well as how much DPS intends to carry over from the current fiscal year to the next fiscal year and its planned uses. The report will list the sources of moneys deposited in the fund over previous fiscal year. The bill takes effect January 1, 2022. [2/25: short form]