Legislative Update

During the Iowa legislative session January through April, the ACLU legislative program sends out weekly emails updating you on the latest bills and political issues at the Capitol. If you would like to receive these updates, click here to sign up. 

• Legislative Update: Done! June 30, 2011

  Minnesota entered a government shutdown, but not Iowa! Just before 4:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon, the Iowa General Assembly voted on two final bills and resolved to adjourn the 2011 legislative session. There were cheers from both legislators and lobby...

• Leo Tolstoy Visits the Capitol June 8, 2011

  Ok, maybe not. But a bill with a length rivaling Tolstoy's War & Peace was debated in the House yesterday. The Omnibus Budget Bill has become known a "Frankenstein" bill because it brings to back to life several issues that had already died (someti...

• Are We There Yet? June 3, 2011

  The end of the 2011 legislative session was supposed to be April 29, but the extreme budget stalemate has pushed the session far past that date...and it's still going, and going, and going. Legislative leadership, however, has been taking on the brunt...

• Emotional Debates, Long Hours May 17, 2011

  The past few days in the Legislature have been a torrential downpour of activity that culminated in yesterday's heated Senate floor debate. It was some of the worst--and best-- debating I've seen all session. Where emotion took over, the debate became ...

• The Problem With Idle Hands May 6, 2011

  A legislator joked to me last week that the longer the General Assembly is in session, the more mischief it can make. Funny at the time; not quite as funny now. The end of the legislative session was supposed to have been Friday, April 29. However, th...