IOWA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
2022 Iowa Legislative Session Ends, Lawsuit Abuse Legislation Fails to Pass The 2022 Iowa Legislature adjourned on Wednesday, May 25th at 12:15 am, five weeks behind schedule due to a dispute on education funding. Even after several extra weeks of work on the school choice bill, legislation that would have expanded parental choice and transparency in education simply couldn’t get passed. Gridlock among the Republicans who have sizeable majorities in both chambers persisted and for the second year in a row the Governor’s hallmark education proposal languished. Governor Reynolds would like to provide publicly funded scholarships to help families pay for private school expenses. The Governor has vowed to be back next year with the same bill. The session had stretched more than a month past its target end date, even though Republican legislators acted quickly early in the session, sending Reynolds their top priority — tax cuts — in time for her to sign a 3.9% flat tax into law hours before her nationally televised March 1 response to President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union Address. Later that week, she signed a law banning transgender women and girls from competing in female sports. Lawmakers approved an $8.2 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1st. One of the most notable policy bills that got passed in the final end-of-session flurry was the 20-year-old bottle and can redemption bill. Unfortunately, IMTA’s top priority, lawsuit abuse did not make it over the finish line. There had been some hope that it could make some favorable
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IOWA TRUCKING LIFELINER
movement in the year-end bills but once again there simply were not enough votes in the House. “We were beyond disappointed that we couldn’t get this legislation passed especially when were just a few votes short in the House. It is extremely frustrating but we will not give up and will be back next year,” said IMTA President Brenda Neville. “I take these losses very personally because I know the importance of getting legislation that will curb the lawsuit abuse that is plaguing this state and nation. I am extremely grateful for the countless number of IMTA members that have stepped up and helped with these efforts. The grassroots support by our members is tremendous.” While lawsuit abuse was the main focus of attention, IMTA monitored over 75 other legislative proposals, weighing on many of them due to their potential impact on trucking operations. The IMTA government relations team will now focus on their summer outreach activities – meeting with candidates and legislators in preparation for the 2023 legislative session. “We will be talking with all the candidates about the importance of our lawsuit abuse legislation. First, we will focus on the primaries and then we will shift our attention to the general election in November. With redistricting, there are a lot of important races we will be involved with and as always, we will be limiting our support only to the candidates that can support the priorities of Iowa’s trucking industry,” said Brenda Neville.
