Day 8

0800 - 1700

Today's benefits included a breakfast in commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Groundwater Protection Act. They had chocolate muffins ... I took some extras for lunch. Yum. The Iowa Credit Union League was in attendance, and we had a visit from a group titled ICAN. Apparently, it is a UI student group that does research and white papers for legislators. Very interesting idea. Another non-legislative event of today was our Capitol Choir's (not really) first meeting. We are apparently performing in an celebration service for legislators ... I am quite unaware, actually. I assume it is Wednesday evening, April 11th. Anyways, it has a mix of representatives, pages, doormen, and clerks, so it will no doubt be fun.

Legislation of the day took a surprising twist when Rep. Rants blasted Rep. Wessel-Kroeschell for another of her bills. If you recall, she took quite a beating with voter registration, and I feel somewhat sorry for her. Today's issue was electioneering communications for campaign finances [HF 580]. It did pass, 82/15, but we were overdue for a debate. Rep. Reichert's bill for an Iowa propane education and research council was also attacked, on the basis that it appropriated money for a cause. The amount of money was rather minuscule, a tenth of a cent per gallon of propane, but the accusation had merit, in my mind. The bill had never gone through the Appropriations committee ... so there was quite a lively discussion about it on the floor. The bill [HF 556] ended up passing 67/29.