Day 12

0745 - 2230.

Another breakfast - this time by the American Lung Association. I ran into more people who knew where Washington was - a perennial surprise. The Iowa White Water Association was set up in the rotunda - they are attempting to limit the dangers of so-called wall dams, which are nearly impossible to see at high stages of the river. If sucked into the current caused by such a dam, one is typically killed. These dams also greatly limit the ecosystem of the area. I had an interesting discussion with them. Also, the Boys and Girls Clubs were congregating throughout the Capitol - made it hard to find a place to sit for lunch.

Since I don't have the House Journal with me for Thursday, I will discuss the principal events of the evening. We discussed two very controversial bills - the first was a supplemental spending bill. It was pork. However, it was pork in the same vein that had been issued by Republican representatives in previous years. My only opposition to this true statement is that Senate, House, and Governor all pledged to cut earmarks and pork spending. This bill stands in stark contradiction to that pledge. The bill did pass. The other major issue was a Health Education bill [H.F. 611]. Now this bill was incredibly sneaky. It changes the content of sexual education and other health classes taught by public schools. At this point, you can opt to keep your child out of said classes, but you must file with the "appropriate principal." The sneaky part is that all the curriculum will be "age-appropriate (nothing new here) and research-based." Research-based, in this case, means research as defined by certain "compromise" organizations within the bill, but also "information that is free of racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, and gender biases." Therefore, any curriculum that contains said "biases" is inappropriate for Iowa education for "school districts and accredited nonpublic schools." This information will be provided to the schools as a "supplement," and they can chose to do with it as they will. However, the "bias" part of the bill was never discussed on the floor, never mentioned to the public. That is the stealth and beauty of it all. The bill passed on to the Senate. Much of my faith in the goodwill of this Legislature has been tarnished today.

UPDATE: I did remember an interesting debate during the day - IMNION reminded me of it. One of the first bills considered during the day would ban deer anti-contraceptives for civilian use [H.F. 740]. Apparently, it is currently classified as a "pesticide," and could be abused by civvies. The funny part is that my rep, Representative Greiner, stated she would vote 'no' on this bill because it "amused" her. I found this immensely funny, and my good humor was only deepened by the fact that I was walking behind Majority Leader McCarthy when he shrugged his shoulders and voted 'no' "because he felt like it." The bill passed, 84-13, but the "opposition" was quite varied and rather amusing.