Snow falls on the Iowa Capitol on Dec. 12, 2024. (Photo by Kathie Obradovich/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
As lawmakers get ready to reconvene for the 2025 legislative session on Jan. 13, several state agencies and departments have already submitted bills they want lawmakers to consider in the upcoming year.
Lawmakers are not required to take up bills that have been submitted before session, but the proposals are insights to state entities’ goals for the upcoming year. Bills filed for consideration by the Legislature include measures from the state attorney general and secretary of state’s offices, as well as the Iowa departments of Education and Public Safety, covering topics from school safety to investment strategies.
Though pre-filed bills aren’t always acted on by the Legislature, many of the proposals relate to topics brought up in previous legislative sessions. These, as well as new topics raised by state government leaders, could have an easier time being heard due to changes brought about by recent state government reorganizations that consolidated some policy-making powers, and because of Republicans expanding their power at the Statehouse.
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Iowa Republicans are entering the session with supermajorities in both chambers following the 2024 general election, in addition to holding all but one statewide elected office and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds appoints the directors for state departments. This means a majority of pre-filed bills are coming from offices led by Republican officeholders or Reynolds’ appointees throughout Iowa’s state government.
The office of State Auditor Rob Sand, the lone Democrat holding a statewide elected position, has submitted six bills ahead of session proposing changes to Iowa Code on topics like theft and suspected fraud of public funds.
Here are five bills submitted in December and January that may come up this session:
ESG investments in public pensions
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office has introduced legislation that would ban fiduciaries managing public pension plans from using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment practices or other policies that consider factors outside of pursuing the economic interest of the plan’s participants and beneficiaries.
The proposal, submitted by the AG’s office Dec. 31, would prohibit parties that manage investments through state pensions from voting for plans “based on any environmental, social, policy, governance, or ideological goal that is not in the best economic interest of plan participants and beneficiaries.”
The proposal is targeting ESG practices that have been used by some companies, such as BlackRock and Vanguard, that consider the impact of companies outside of profit margins when investing — such as the environmental impact of oil and gas industries, or the social impact of gun and ammunition manufacturers.
While supporters of ESG investment strategies say the measure helps ensure that investments make ethical considerations, some conservatives say the practice unfairly targets certain industries, and that the focus of fiduciaries should be solely on maximizing returns.
Prohibiting ESG investments in use of public funds has been brought up in previous sessions. In 2023, the Legislature considered a bill that would have banned the state from entering contracts with companies that use ESG practices or pursue boycotts of certain companies or industries; Reynolds introduced an anti-ESG measure in 2024. Neither of the measures became law.
In previous sessions, state officials have said that Iowa systems like the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System already do not invest with companies that use ESG strategies.
THC drinks in vehicles
The Iowa Department of Public Safety is proposing a measure that would ban drivers and passengers from having open containers of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) drinks in vehicles, similar to existing regulations on alcoholic beverages.
The legislation would put in place restrictions on open and unsealed containers of THC drinks in the passenger areas of motor vehicles when the vehicle is in operation. Unopened bottles, cans and other containers could be transported legally, as could open and unsealed drinks when placed in the trunk of a vehicle or behind the last upright seat.
The proposal would apply to lawful THC beverages. In the 2024 session, Reynolds approved a measure that set caps on THC contained in consumable hemp products, like drinks or gummies, at 4 milligrams of THC per serving in a single product and a limit of 10 mg THC per container. The law also set an age limit of 21 for purchasing THC products, as well as adding new rules and penalties related to the sale, manufacturing and possession of hemp-derived consumables.
School safety ‘threat assessment teams’
As officials throughout the nation seek solutions to preventing and addressing school shootings, the public safety department released a proposal to create “threat assessment teams” between schools and government agencies for coordination when dealing with a potentially violent situation.
The legislation, filed Dec. 30, would authorize public school districts, accredited private schools and charter schools and innovation zone schools to establish a “multidisciplinary threat assessment team” that would coordinate efforts and resources to intervene when “a student enrolled in the school exhibits behavior that may pose a threat to the safety of the school, school employees, or other students enrolled in the school.” The team members could include school and local law enforcement officials, as well as mental health professionals and representatives of social services and juvenile court services.
The proposal would allow schools to share records and information related to school safety, and would provide the team members immunity from civil liabilities when reporting and investigating students or other individuals if their efforts relate to “conduct or information indicating that the student or person poses a credible danger of serious bodily injury or death to one or more students, school employees, or others on school property.”
The proposal comes nearly a year after the shooting at Perry High School on Jan. 4, 2024, when a 17-year-old student shot and killed 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff and Principal Dan Marburger, as well as wounding two staff members and four students.
Ranked choice voting
The Iowa Secretary of State’s office introduced a measure that would ban ranked choice voting — also known as instant runoff voting — in Iowa.
Instead of choosing a single candidate to support in an election, ranked choice voting would allow voters to order the candidates appearing on a ballot from their first to last pick. If a candidate receives the majority of first-choice votes, they win the election. If there is not a clear winner, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated and the votes of people who picked said candidate as their top choice have their votes redistributed to their second-choice candidate. The process continues until a candidate wins a majority of votes.
Advocates for ranked choice voting say that the process would help combat extremism and give candidates not affiliated with the two major parties a better shot in U.S. elections. Alaska and Maine, as well as major U.S. localities such as New York City and San Francisco, have ranked choice voting systems for some elections.
However, critics say the system is undemocratic and complicated. Voters in several states — Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon — rejected ranked choice voting, choosing not to adopt ballot measures for the system in the 2024 general election.
A ban on ranked choice voting was also introduced in Iowa as part of a larger election law package during the 2024 session, but failed to reach the governor’s desk.
‘Grooming’ in schools
A proposal filed by the Iowa Department of Education would define the act of “grooming” as “the process of building trust and emotional connections with a student with the intent to exploit such student” under Iowa law, potentially encompassing a wider range of actions from school employees.
School districts are be mandated to report if school staff had engaged in “grooming” behavior toward students to the Board of Educational Examiners under a law signed by Reynolds in 2024. Under this law, the act of a teacher or school employee “grooming” a student constitute actions that “seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a student” to participate in a sexual act, or to engage in unlawful sexual conduct.
The measure was amended during the previous session after education advocates said that wording in the original legislation could discourage teachers and other school staff — who had not engaged in sexual or inappropriate interactions with students — from connecting or having any one-on-one interactions with their students for fear of disciplinary or legal action.
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