Minute with Mike, Week Seven

From My Desk

I find it hard to believe we are wrapping up week seven already. Time is flying by despite all of the craziness that has been a part of this 89th General Assembly. Friday, March 5, is the first funnel date, which is quickly approaching. This means there is a time crunch for bills that are still in committee to get passed -- this is the same for the Senate and the House.

Most committees will only meet once next week, although some will meet twice. The first funnel date is to weed out bills that have little support so we can focus our attention on priority bills to keep them moving through the legislative process. Bills must pass out of their standing committee by the funnel date in order for them to stay alive and be eligible for debate on the House floor.

The funnel date acts as a deadline for passing bills out of committee which keeps the legislative process moving efficiently (well, as efficient as state government can be) here at the Capitol. In order for a bill to stay alive, it must make it out of the standing committees that it has been assigned to in either the House or the Senate.

If a bill fails to pass out of its standing committee, this means it is “dead” or “ineligible” for floor debate for this session and will have to wait until next year. So, you have a situation where legislators are working very hard to get bills out of committee and on the other side you have legislators that are working very hard to keep bills from passing out of committee.

As you can imagine with long hours and the stress of the job, emotions run higher than usual during funnel week which can lead to a few confrontations, not only between the two parties but even among members of the same party.

Because next week is funnel week, I’ve been working very hard to get bills passed out of committees that I believe are good for Iowa.

Agriculture

The most exciting part of this week was getting my Anaerobic Digester bill passed off the House floor. This is a bill I had drafted early in the session because I heard from livestock producers across Iowa that wanted to be able to use some of the new and exciting technology that has been developed in the field of anaerobic digestion.

The problem was that Iowa caps the size of how large a livestock farm can be. The problem was that this cap was not high enough to allow for farms to have enough livestock to be able to sustain one of these anaerobic digesters.

My bill was actually quite simple. It said that if you wanted to go over this size limit to be able to use anaerobic digestion, 100 percent of your manure had to go through the digester.

The digesting process will take all of the manure and turn it into natural gas. There will be two by-products as a result of these digesters.

One will be a solid that can be reused as bedding for cows and the other will be a liquid, that still maintains all of its nutritional value, which can be applied to growing crops using irrigation pivots.

2nd Amendment Omnibus Bill (HSB254)

Whether you live in a city or in a rural area, your right to keep and bear arms is essential and Iowa House Republicans are committed to protecting it. This bill will improve public safety, eliminate needless regulations, and reassure law abiding citizens that they do not need the government’s permission to practice their Constitutional right to bear arms.

This bill will make Iowans safer by allowing law enforcement and reserve officers to carry firearms on school grounds regardless of whether or not they’re on duty.

This is common sense. In a dangerous situation on school property, the trained law enforcement officers should be able to step up and protect the students, teachers and administrators. It will allow EMTs who train and serve with a tactical team a professional permit to carry.

This bill DOES reaffirm that law-abiding Iowans don’t need to ask the government’s permission to practice their Constitutional right by eliminating the need to get a permit to carry or acquire a firearm. This bill DOES NOT eliminate the need for a background check in order to purchase a firearm.

In fact, it will result in more complete background checks because if someone attempts to purchase a firearm without it, they will need to pass a federal background check before the purchase can go through.

This bill DOES expand Iowans’ access to state-approved training organizations to become trained to carry a handgun by creating a DPS database of approved organizations. This bill DOES NOT eliminate the need to take training if a person wants a permit.

This bill DOES prohibit landlords of government-assisted housing from banning firearms. This bill DOES NOT impact landlords who privately own and operate their properties and don’t take government subsidies.

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Please go to https://www.facebook.com/citizensforsexton or search for State Representative Mike Sexton on Facebook and like it so you can stay informed about legislation we are working on. Please let me know what you are thinking! Feel free to contact me at my legislative email at mike.sexton@legis.iowa.gov.