Democrats: Build Back Iowa
Kids Back to School Safely
- Give schools tools to get kids back to school safely (HF 659)
- Student Pandemic Recovery Grants for public schools (HF 659)
Support Iowa Families
- Food security for every family (HF 609)
- Homeowner or rental assistance for 15,000 Iowans and extend prohibition on evictions until 2022 (HF 657)
- Exempt unemployment assistance from state taxes (SF 290)
- Pandemic assistance for child care to families and providers
- Grants to open new licensed child care centers and financial support to keep current centers open
- End cliff effect for child/dependent care tax credit (HF 668)
- Tax credit for small business that provide child care (HF 617)
Open/Reopen Small Businesses
- Expand eligibility and help another 5,000 small businesses stay open/reopen with $100 million for Iowa Small Business Relief Grant program (HF 608)
Protecting Iowans from COVID
- Make telehealth parity permanent for mental and physical health (HF 612)
Accountability & Transparency
- Protecting workers on the front lines while holding bad actors accountable
- Transparency and accountability of taxpayer dollars spent on COVID response and recovery (HF 689)
Reynolds & GOP: Politics & Division
- Voter suppression (SF 413)
- Historic low funding for public schools (SF 269)
- Eliminate background checks & put guns in hand of criminals (SJR 7)
- Take away right of woman to make her own healthcare decisions; ban common forms of birth control (HJR 5)
- Eliminates diversity plans used by some schools (HF 228)
- Provides immunity to firearm manufacturers (HF 621)
- Eliminates housing voucher non-discrimination laws (SF 252)
- Expands Charter Schools (HF 813)
- Bans “divisive concepts” like racism or sexism from being discussed in public schools and universities (HF 802)
Missed Opportunities
Common Sense, Bipartisan Bills Killed by Republicans
- Constitutionally restore felon voting rights (HJR 11)
- Prohibits “gay panic” defense (HF 310)
- Cap cost of insulin to $100 for month supply (HF 263)
- Pharmacists can give birth control without prescription (HF 434)
- Insurance has to reimburse physical health providers at same rate for telehealth services (HF 784)
- Prohibits employers from restricting low-wage workers from getting another job (SF 496)
- Learning Recovery Task Force for Covid learning losses (SF 545)
- Enhances communications with our returning veterans to be sure they access benefits they’ve earned (SF 255)
2021 Bi-Partisan Successes
- Expanding access to emergency medical services (SF 615)
- Increase funding for students learning English (HF 605)
- Expand protections to prevent sexual abuse (SF 253)
- Encourage more OB/GYN doctors to locate in rural Iowa (SF 129)
- Increase funding for job training at community colleges (HF 871)
- New enforcement to stop human trafficking (HF 452)
- New tracking system for rape kits (HF 426)
- Lifetime trout stamp for Iowans over 65 (HF 234)
- More funding opportunities for voluntary fire departments (HF 761)
- Expands protections for vulnerable Iowans (HF 839)
- $1 million increase for Iowa state parks (HF 860)
- Explores opportunities to expand broadband across Iowa communities (HF 848)
- Creates new opportunities and financial assistance for small-scale meat processing businesses and lockers (HF 871, HF 857)
- Expand services to sexual assault survivors and increase accountability in the investigations of these crimes (HF 603, HF 426)
- Increase oversight of pesticide application (SF 482)
Iowans stopped these bad GOP Bills
- Cutting unemployment for Iowans (SF 492)
- Reduces unemployment appeals for Iowans (SF 187)
- Private school vouchers (SF 159)
- Prohibiting any instruction about gender identity in schools (SF 167)
- Requiring survey of political views of university employees (SF 292)
- Allowing discrimination based on religious beliefs/exemption defense (SF 436)
- Penalize or remove school board members and administrators for disagreeing with the Governor (SSB 1213)
- Digital tracking women looking for reproductive care online (HF 515)
- Legalize conversion therapy & ban medical care for some kids (HF 193)
- Punish students in communities with high COVID cases (HF 165)
- Reinstate death penalty (HF 271/SF 82)
- Publicly shaming woman for their health care decisions and falsely declaring an “abortion pandemic” in Iowa (SF 508)
- New barriers for Iowans to get food or health care assistance (SF 389)
- Eliminate tenure at Iowa’s state universities (HF 496)
- Discouraging Iowans from getting live-saving vaccines (SF 555)
- New “poll tax” before restoring someone’s right to vote (HF 818)
- Prohibits a social media company from limiting an elected official’s access to the platform (HF 830)
- Punishing cities for keeping budget balanced (SF 479)
- Allows the State to make discrimination easier (HF 815)
- Medication abortion reversal requiring physicians to give unproven information to patients (HF 383)
- Immunity to trucking companies for hiring rapists/sex traffickers (SF 537/HF 772)
- Putting a monetary value on people’s lives when medical malpractice has occurred (HF 592/SF 557)
