The U.S. Capitol, on Nov. 9, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)
As lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are preparing for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday, Iowa’s U.S. senators met with Trump nominees this week while representatives acted on bills relating to undocumented immigration and women’s sports.
The inauguration is set to take place Jan. 20 at 11 a.m. CT. In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered flags to be raised to full-staff at the Iowa State Capitol and other state buildings on Inauguration Day to honor Trump.
“Iowa will celebrate and recognize this historic change in our country’s leadership by raising our flags,” Reynolds said in a news release.
The decision to raise flags for Trump’s inauguration – also taken up by states including Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas – goes against a federal order for flags to be flown at half-staff after the death of former President Jimmy Carter. While U.S. Code calls flags be flown at half-staff for 30 days after the death of a former president, until Jan. 28 for Carter, the measure is not mandatory.
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Governors including Reynolds made the decision to raise the flags for the inauguration after Trump made a social media post criticizing Democrats for being “giddy” about the flag being flown at half-mast for his inauguration.
“In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast,” Trump wrote Jan. 3. “Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it.”
Grassley, Ernst field Trump Cabinet nominees
Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa have played key roles in the Senate confirmation hearings for the Trumpm administration’s incoming nominees.
Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, oversaw this week’s hearings for Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, was selected after Trump’s first pick, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, took himself out of the running following allegations of paying for sex with a minor and drug usage.
In his opening remarks on the first day of Bondi’s hearing, Grassley called for his colleagues to treat her “fairly” and praised her work as Florida AG and as a prosecutor. He also said Bondi will play an important role in making changes to the U.S. Department of Justice, saying efforts were needed to prevent “government weaponization” in cases like the FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022.
“When confirmed, Ms. Bondi will take the helm at a turbulent time,” Grassley said. “The Justice Department’s infected with political decision-making, while its leaders refuse to acknowledge that reality. “
Democrats pressed Bondi during the Wednesday hearing on her loyalty to Trump, specifically on concerns about pardoning of Jan. 6 defendants, the prosecution of political enemies and acknowledgement of Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
“Biden is the president of the United States,” Bondi said in response to a question from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. “He was duly sworn in, and he is the president of the United States. There was a peaceful transition of power. President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee also held hearings this week on Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary nominee – though the final vote on his appointment will likely not take place until after Inauguration Day, according to Politico.
Hegseth, a former Fox News weekend host and Army National Guard veteran, has faced major criticism as a nominee over allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct, harassment and as well as financial mismanagement of veterans’ nonprofits. At a Tuesday hearing Hegseth denied these claims as a “coordinated smear campaign.”
Ernst, a member of the Armed Services Committee, released a statement supporting Hegseth Tuesday saying that “Americans deserve a strong Secretary of Defense.”
“As I serve on the Armed Services Committee, I will work with Pete to create the most lethal fighting force and hold him to his commitments of auditing the Pentagon, ensuring opportunity for women in combat while maintaining high standards, and selecting a senior official to address and prevent sexual assault in the ranks,” Ernst said.
In the U.S. House, Iowa’s Republican delegation helped pass bills they said will help protect women.
The Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act passed the House Thursday with a 274-145 vote. The measure would deport and block entry for immigrants without permanent legal status who have been convicted of or have admitted to crimes related to domestic violence, sexual abuse, stalking and child abuse.
The bill was supported by 61 Democrats, but other members of the minority party opposed the measure over concerns that it could negatively impact victims of domestic abuse as it does not contain exceptions in situations like when a person fought in self-defense against their abuser.
Rep. Ashley Hinson criticized opponents of the legislation, saying it was a “common sense” proposal.
“Any Democrat who voted against this bill should be asked why they think illegal immigrants who have committed sexual assault should be allowed to stay in the U.S.,” Hinson said in a news release.
Rep. Randy Feenstra linked the bill to President Joe Biden’s border policies, saying the bill was needed because “innocent Americans have been needlessly victimized by illegal immigrants, suffering sex crimes and domestic violence.”
“That’s why I voted for legislation to ensure that any illegal immigrant who commits a sex crime or domestic violence offense is swiftly detained and deported,” Feenstra said in a statement. “With unified Republican leadership in our nation’s capital, we will deliver where the Biden administration intentionally failed, lock down our border, and protect our families and communities from violent crime.”
House lawmakers also passed a bill that would ban transgender women from participating in women’s school sports nationwide — a policy has already been adopted in many states, including Iowa. The bill, passed 218-206 Tuesday, would change language in Title IX to state that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
GOP lawmakers, including Reps. Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, said the measure was needed as a countermeasure to Democrats’ actions that sought to allow transgender athletes to participate in sports, pointing to the Biden administration’s guidance and rules establishing protections for transgender students and athletes.
“For years, the radical left has waged an all-out assault on women’s sports and spaces,” Miller-Meeks said. “I will not stand by while they undermine the integrity of female athletics. Our daughters deserve a fair and level playing field, and this bill ensures they get it. I look forward to its swift passage in the Senate and being signed into law by President Trump.”
More than 400 civil rights groups have called for Congress to reject the proposal, writing in a letter that the bill is a political move to discriminate against transgender and intersex students by excluding them from athletic activities.
“Although the authors of the legislation represent themselves as serving the interests of cisgender girls and women, this legislation does not address the longstanding barriers all girls and women have faced in their pursuit of athletics,” the letter states. “Instead of providing for equal facilities, equipment, and travel, or any other strategy that women athletes have been pushing for for decades, the bill cynically veils an attack on transgender people as a question of athletics policy.”
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