Legislative Session Week 8

Every Child Counts Newsletter

Legislative Update

February 25, 2011

Greetings!

It has been another eventful week at the Capitol. Funnel week is next week so the pace has picked up quite a bit on subcommittee meetings and committee meetings. The funnel date coming up on the 4th means it is the final date for Senate bills to be reported out of Senate committees (and House bills out of House committees) or they are dead. There are some exceptions: appropriations, ways and means and leadership bills. The House has scheduled committee meetings for Friday the 4th - session on Fridays is rare!

On Feb. 23, the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee met and released their budget. This committee is now divided since the Senate Democrats on this subcommittee will come out with their own budget separate from the House Republicans. We don't expect to see anything from the Senate Democrats subcommittee members for a couple more weeks.

The House decided to fund preschool at 33.6 million compared to the Governor's proposal of 43.6 million. Early Childhood Iowa remained funded at the same level of the Governor's. We are unsure as to what the House Republicans have in mind for Shared Visions as the funding for SV always appears in the Standings bill.

There was a testy subcommittee meeting on Thursday on HSB 145 (Gov's preschool bill). To get a feel for how the meeting went check out this article by the Des Moines Register. The subcommittee work will continue Monday at 10:00 since we didn't get through the entire bill and there was A LOT of discussion. Rep. Forristall, House Education Chair, has stated the bill should make it through full committee sometime next week. The Education Committee is scheduled to meet everyday next week but Tuesday.

Stay in touch ~

Sheila

Federal Update

The US House recently passed a budget that imposes drastic cuts on programs and services vital to our most vulnerable citizens. Senator Tom Harkin released some great briefs on the impact that budget cuts would have on various programs.

Analysis of House Republican Budget Cuts on Education in Iowa - Major Proposed Cuts from Head Start to Pell Grants

Analysis of House Republican Budget Cuts on Health Care in Iowa

Analysis of House Elimination of AmeriCorps and Community Service Programs in Iowa

Child Care: The House plan would cut $39 million nationally from the Child Care and Development Block Grant, just as child care funding provided in the 2009 Recovery Act is coming to an end. The grant program provides subsidies to low-income working families to help pay for the cost of child care, as well as funds to improve the quality of care. The House plan would eliminate subsidies for about 165,000 low-income children, significantly reducing the availability and affordability of quality child care for low-income families. These are families that are working, or in some cases looking for work, and that depend on those subsidies to do so.

Estimated Impact on Iowa: The House plan would eliminate child care subsidies for over 1,500 low-income Iowa families next year.

Bills of Interest

HF 45 - An Act relating to public funding and regulatory matters and making, reducing, and transferring appropriations and revising fund amounts and including effective, retroactive, and other applicability date provisions. Passed House on January 19, 60 - 40. Messaged to Senate. Senate Subcommittee passed with big amendment on 2/10. In full Approps committee on 2/14.

HJR 5 - A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Iowa preserving the freedom of Iowans to provide for their own health care. Subcommittee, Horbach, Fry, and Oldson.

HF 4 - An Act providing for a reduction in the individual income tax rates and including effective date and applicability provision. Subcommittee, Helland, Byrnes, and Jacoby

HF 2 -An Act establishing the right to choose whether to purchase health care.

SF 117 - Health Care Cost Containment.

SSB 1060 - e-Health Information Exchange n Human Services Committee. .

SSB 1077 - Reorganizing the state mental health system in Human Services Committee.

SSB 1063 - Iowa Health Insurance Exchange in State Government Committee. Subcommittee continues to meet.

HF 174 - An Act revising requirements for family support programs provided under the school ready children grant program and including effective and applicability date provisions. Subcommittee, Koester, Pearson, and Winckler.

SF 56 - An Act relating to donation of newborn umbilical cord blood. Subcommittee, Bolkcom, Boettger, and Jochum. HF 165 - companion bill.

HF 221 - An Act providing for implementation of a voluntary licensure system for certain home-based child care providers.

Subcommittee, Heaton, Mascher, and Pearson.

SF 31 - An Act increasing the amount of the earned income tax credit and including retroactive applicability provisions. Passed out of subcommittee on 2/10.

HSB 71 - An Act repealing the statewide voluntary preschool program for four-year-old children and including effective date provisions.

SF 209 - increases the state earned income tax credit. UPDATE: Passed Senate. Sent to House. House Committee passed stripping the EITC increase from bill. Eligible for debate in House.

SF 235 - An Act authorizing the establishment of health insurance exchanges in the state and including effective date provisions.

NEW:

HF 356 - Requires certain applicants in public assistance programs to participate in substance abuse screening.

SSB 1115 - an act relating to the child abuse registry. Companion bill HSB 132

SF 113 - pay day loan institutions - reducing interest rate to 36%. UPDATE - Passed Subcommittee 2/24. On to full Committee

HF 378 - an act relating to the requirements for early childhood Iowa areas. Subcommittee, L. Miller, Forristall, and Willems

SF 130 - an act on raccoon hunting (thought I would throw this one in here for fun - see if you are really paying attention)

SF 275 - An Act relating to provider requirements for participation in the state child care assistance program. Subcommittee, Bolkcom, Boettger, and Ragan.

HF 288 - A bill for an act requiring the department of human services to request authorization from the United States department of agriculture to allow the state to restrict the use of food assistance benefits for food items with a low nutritional value and including effective date provisions.

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Quote of the Week:

"Poverty devastates families, communities and nations. It causes instability and political unrest and fuels conflict."

Kofi Annan

The Price of Preschool and the Cost of Losing It

A statewide quality preschool program should be viewed as a strong economic development tool. "The research is clear that a quality program not only helps families, but promotes long-term economic development for the state," said IPP Research Associate Andrew Cannon.

Read more about the report on the IPP website here.

Download the four page brief: IPP Policy Brief: Choices Surrounding Iowa's Investment in Early Childhood Education

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Congress' Decision on Child Care Block Grant to Affect Thousands of Iowans

Federal funding for child care assistance for low-income families is set to expire on March 4. Whether Congress acts prior to that date to extend this program will affect the ability of millions of Americans and thousands of Iowans to work and keep their children in a high-quality program.

Download the "Helping Low Income Families Work" document here.

These great reports are from our partners at the Iowa Policy Project.