Governor Terry Branstad appointed two new members of the Iowa Board of Regents yesterday. Former State Senator Larry McKibben and construction business owner Milt Dakovic will fill vacancies created when the Iowa Senate did not confirm two of the governor’s three Regents appointees this year: Craig Lang and Robert Cramer. Branstad likes to appoint former state lawmakers to boards and commissions. He encouraged McKibben to come out of retirement to run for the Iowa Senate again in 2012, but McKibben lost the GOP primary in Senate district 36. I’ve posted more background on McKibben and Dakovich after the jump. Their appointments are subject to confirmation by the Iowa Senate during the 2014 legislative session.

Lang recently finished six years of service on the Board of Regents and had been board president. Today the remaining board members chose Bruce Rastetter as the new board president. Rastetter has served as president pro-tem since the summer of 2011 and has been in frequent communication with the three state university presidents. The largest donor to Branstad’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign has also been a controversial figure as a Regent, having “blurred the line” between “his role as investor in AgriSol Energy” and his position on the board. (The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board dismissed an ethics complaint filed against Rastetter over that proposed AgriSol land deal.) Earlier this year, Rastetter asked the University of Iowa president to arrange a meeting between ethanol industry representatives and Professor Jerald Schnoor. Democrat and Linn-Mar school district superintendent Katie Mulholland will replace Rastetter as president pro-tem of the Board of Regents.

UPDATE: Democratic State Senator Jeff Danielson has already announced that he supports Branstad’s new nominees for the Board of Regents. Earlier this year, he voted against confirming Lang and Cramer.

Bullet dodged: MidAmerican Energy announced yesterday that it will not pursue plans to build a new nuclear power plant in Iowa. Details are in this front-page story in today’s Des Moines Register. MidAmerican was conducting a three-year feasibility study (paid for by its customers) and had considered sites in Fremont and Muscatine counties for a nuclear power plant. However, utility officials determined that federal officials have not approved the modular design MidAmerican wanted to build. (They can’t say they weren’t warned.)

I encourage you to click through and read the whole Register article by Perry Beeman and William Petroski. Excerpts are after the jump. Thanks to the environmental organizations and AARP, which fought MidAmerican’s efforts to bill ratepayers in advance for building a nuclear power plant. Legislation toward that end cleared the Iowa House in 2011 and an Iowa Senate committee the following year but never came up for a vote in the full Senate amid strong Democratic opposition.

Last month MidAmerican announced a planned $1.9 billion investment in wind energy, which “will add up to 1,050 megawatts of wind generation and up to 656 new wind turbines in Iowa by year-end 2015.”

UPDATE: MidAmerican’s feasibility study is online here (pdf). The company’s official statement and excerpts from Dar Danielson’s report for Radio Iowa are now after the jump.

SECOND UPDATE: Added local reaction from Joe Jarosz’s report for the Muscatine Journal.

Many questions remain to be answered about Iowa’s new plan to provide health insurance to low-income citizens, but this much is clear: resolving the impasse over Medicaid expansion will be a major theme in State Senator Amanda Ragan’s re-election campaign next year.

Follow me after the jump for background on Ragan and more details about Iowa Senate district 27, sure to be targeted by both parties in 2014.  

The Iowa Senate wrapped up its work for the year shortly after midnight on May 23, and Iowa House members adjourned about 11 hours later. Lawmakers in both parties have been congratulating themselves for compromising on some big issues that ended in stalemate the previous two years. Rod Boshart compiled an excellent list of what the legislature did and didn’t approve during 2013.

We all can appreciate the desire to finish a big project before a holiday weekend, and since legislators stopped receiving per diem payments weeks ago, they understandably wanted to get out of town as quickly as possible. However, I found it disturbing that votes were held before most lawmakers, let alone members of the public, had time to digest final conference committee deals on education reform, an alternative to Medicaid expansion, property taxes, and the health and human services budget. Transparency isn’t just a buzzword. Had journalists and advocacy groups been able to look over the last-minute compromises, people might have discovered problematic language or even simple drafting errors, which could produce unintended consequences after Governor Terry Branstad signs these bills into law.

I have a lot of questions about the final education reform bill and the plan to provide health insurance to low-income Iowans, particularly those earning between 101 percent and 138 percent of the poverty level. I also need more time to sort through the budget numbers and final changes to the standings bill. After the holiday weekend Bleeding Heartland will examine the important results of the legislative session in more detail. For now, I’ve posted after the jump details on who voted for and against the major bills approved this week.

UPDATE: In the May 24 edition of the On Iowa Politics podcast, statehouse reporters Mike Wiser and James Lynch discussed how the big issues came together “behind closed doors,” with no public scrutiny or oversight. Lynch commented that to his knowledge, the conference committee named to resolve the impasse over Medicaid expansion never formally met, except perhaps for one organizational meeting. Lynch recounted one occasion when Iowa House Republican Dave Heaton was briefing journalists about the health care talks, and the journalists asked when that happened, since there hadn’t been any public notices of conference committee meetings. According to Lynch, Heaton replied, “We’re not having meetings, but we’re meeting.” Senate President Pam Jochum said that negotiations between Democratic State Senator Amanda Ragan and House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer produced the “key to Iowa’s health care compromise.” Notably, Upmeyer didn’t have a prominent role in passing the House health insurance plan, nor was she named to the conference committee assigned to merge the House and Senate proposals.

Speaking to journalists on May 22, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal and Jochum weren’t able to answer a specific question about compromise wording reached regarding Medicaid coverage of abortions. That was no minor issue–it was the last sticking point holding up approval of the health and human services budget. In effect, Gronstal told journalists, you can see the wording after the final bill is published.

During the 2011 legislative session, Iowa House Republicans approved a ban on most abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. Several attempts by Republicans to bring that bill to the floor in the Iowa Senate failed. At the time, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal warned that the House legislation “invites a very serious court challenge” and violates a woman’s “right to make her own personal, private decision about abortion without the interference of politicians.” After the original bill died in the upper chamber, the Iowa House passed an even more restrictive ban on abortions after 20 weeks gestation (which is equivalent to about 18 weeks post-fertilization). Governor Terry Branstad supports efforts to ban abortion after 20 weeks in Iowa, but as long as the Iowa Senate remains under Democratic control, such legislation will not advance here.

Many other states have passed versions of a ban on late-term abortions. Yesterday a Ninth Circuit U.S. Appeals Court panel struck down the law Arizona adopted in 2012. The three judges (including one conservative appointed by a Republican president) agreed that the law violates a woman’s constitutional rights.

After the jump I’ve posted excerpts from the majority and concurring opinions. Assuming the state of Arizona appeals, this case could lead to the most important U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion in a decade.

Iowa Senate Minority Leader Bill Dix told WHO-TV last night that former Senate GOP communications director Kirsten Anderson was fired solely because of her job performance, and that it’s a coincidence her employment was terminated the same day she submitted documentation of alleged sexual harassment at the statehouse.

When news broke last week of a tax compromise skewed toward business, I wondered why Senate Democrats would agree to pass that bill without progress toward Medicaid expansion, one of their top priorities. Governor Terry Branstad was saying legislators should adjourn after approving a budget, education reform and the tax deal, returning later this year for a special session on health insurance coverage for low-income Iowans. In my opinion, Democrats would be insane to give Republicans what they want on taxes now, hoping for Medicaid expansion later.

Today several signs point toward a possible deal on Medicaid coverage before the end of the legislative session.

Kirsten Anderson lost her job on Friday afternoon as communications director for the Iowa Senate Republicans. Today she went public alleging that she was fired after documenting sexual harassment by GOP state senators and staffers. WHO-TV broadcast Dave Price’s exclusive interview with Anderson Sunday morning, and I recommend watching the whole clip at their website. After the jump I’ve posted highlights from Anderson’s claims and a denial from Ed Failor Jr., a top staffer for Senate Minority Leader Bill Dix.

As a bonus, I enclose below your laugh for the day: a screenshot from the official Iowa Senate GOP website as of 7 pm on Sunday. The front page includes a link to the Des Moines Register’s blog and the headline, “Iowa Senate GOP staffer claims she was fired for protesting sexual harassment; Dix aide issues strong denial.” I wonder whether Anderson was the only person on that staff who knew how to update the website. It’s also possible that the Des Moines Register political blog headlines automatically feed into that box on the front page, and no other Senate GOP staff checked the site over the weekend.  

Iowa House and Senate conference committee negotiators appear to have struck a grand bargain on taxes. I haven’t seen any press release on the agreement yet from Senate Democrats, so I don’t know whether there is consensus in the caucus for the deal. But both Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal and Minority Leader Bill Dix are backing the compromise, as is House Speaker Kraig Paulsen.

After the jump I’ve posted commentary on the deal and a memo outlining the details. The bulk of the tax cuts will go to commercial property owners, but I see no evidence that the majority of small business operators (who rent rather than own property) will benefit at all. Democrats are getting the earned income tax credit increase they’ve been trying to pass for years, and that’s an important issue. However, the same vulnerable populations that benefit from the earned income tax credit will bear the brunt of the state and county service cuts that will likely happen as the commercial property tax reductions are phased in.  

I haven’t had my eye on property taxes during this year’s legislative session, because I assumed no compromise would be found between the very different bills favored by Iowa House Republicans and Iowa Senate Democrats. A recent analysis by the Iowa Fiscal Partnership showed that the Democratic approach was better for commercial property owners “with less than $622,500 valuation in property,” while larger businesses (such as national retailers or real estate trusts) would do better under the GOP plan. That must-read study also undercut the case for any urgency to reduce property taxes in Iowa.

Any relevant thoughts are welcome in this thread. UPDATE: Added some comments from Iowa legislators and information about a loophole that could disqualify a lot of commercial property from the tax reduction.

Apparently there was some contentious Facebook discussion about whether the Iowa Democratic Party would or should support Swati Dandekar if she wins next year’s primary to represent Iowa’s first Congressional district.

What a waste of energy.

I am not convinced Dandekar will run for Congress, and if she runs, I doubt she will win the IA-01 primary. Several core Democratic constituencies have a problem with her, and I don’t see any outpouring of support. At this writing, six days after Dandekar confirmed that she is considering the race, the Facebook page for her exploratory committee has only five “likes.” I don’t see her path to beating Pat Murphy or some other Democrat who may join the race later. Cedar Rapids City Council member Monica Vernon is leaning towards running, Rick Smith reported for the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Instead of fretting over an unlikely scenario in IA-01, progressives with a grudge against conservadems should recruit a strong primary challenger to Joe Seng in Iowa Senate district 45. His voting record is worse than Dandekar’s, and he’s gotten some horrible legislation passed. Senate district 45, based in Davenport, is safe for Democrats in the general election.

State Senator Kent Sorenson claims to have made some Iowa House Republicans unhappy by helping the advocacy group Iowa Pro-Life Action pressure state representatives over abortion funding. Currently, Iowa’s Medicaid program covers abortions under very limited circumstances. In fact, our state is among the most restrictive in this area. Nevertheless, a compromise worked out on the final day of the 2011 legislative session angered many conservatives. Some Iowa Republicans have pushed for a total ban on Medicaid-funded abortion.

In a Facebook post last night, Sorenson lambasted members of his own party who do not keep their promises on the “pro-life” issue. He claimed that some House Republicans “are considering filing ethics charges against me” because he signed a letter Iowa Pro-Life Action sent to lawmakers. Looking through the Iowa House Code of Ethics, it’s not clear to me which rule Sorenson might have violated. House Republican staffer Josie Albrecht told me by telephone that she was not aware of any pending ethics complaints by legislators against Sorenson.

I enclose the full text of the Facebook post after the jump. At this writing, it has been “shared” by 63 Facebook users, including conservative talk radio hosts Steve Deace and Jan Mickelson.

Sorenson is already facing an ethics investigation related to alleged paid work for Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign. I have been wondering whether Republicans might be better off with a different nominee in Iowa Senate district 13 next year. However, an uncompromising stand against abortion funding would serve Sorenson well if he faced a GOP primary challenger.

State Senator Tom Courtney has asked newly appointed Iowa State Auditor Mary Mosiman to conduct “a special audit of the use of HAVA (Help America Vote Act) funds by Secretary of State Matt Schultz.” Courtney has been a leading critic of Schultz’s policies to combat alleged voter fraud. He previously asked State Auditor David Vaudt and the federal Office of Inspector General to look into Schultz’s use of HAVA funds to pay for criminal investigations. Courtney points out that federal funding is intended for “educating voters concerning voting procedures, voting rights and voting technology.”

An Iowa Senate press release containing background on Courtney’s request is after the jump, along with the full text of Courtney’s letter to Mosiman. She would presumably have to assign a different staff member of the Auditor’s office to conduct any inquiry, since she’s worked for Schultz for more than two years, running the Secretary of State’s Office elections division. Mosiman has publicly defended Schultz’s policies on alleged voter fraud, including photo ID requirements that most Iowa county auditors oppose.

The criminal investigations have so far uncovered a few allegedly improper voter registrations by ex-felons and a few instances of non-citizens allegedly registering to vote or casting ballots in local or state elections. To my knowledge, those charges have not led to any convictions yet. Three cases of alleged wrongful voting by non-citizens were dropped in March because the investigating DCI agent was called up for active military duty.

The Iowa legislature’s 2013 session is already in overtime, and the standoff over whether to expand Medicaid is one of the last obstacles to adjournment. A conference committee including five lawmakers from each party has been seeking middle ground between Medicaid expansion, a priority for the 26 Senate Democrats, and the “Healthy Iowa Plan” that barely cleared the Iowa House but failed in the Senate.

This week Senate Democrats offered another gesture toward the Republican desire for low-income Iowans to have more “skin in the game” when they obtain health insurance coverage.

Meanwhile, three major advocacy groups stepped up their efforts to persuade lawmakers that the Healthy Iowa Plan offers inferior access for patients while incurring substantially higher property tax costs.

Finally, a coalition of progressive organizations announced that it will run a television commercial this Sunday targeting GOP State Representative Dave Heaton, the weakest link among House Republicans trying to pass Governor Terry Branstad’s alternative plan. Details on all those developments are after the jump.

Factory farm advocates failed in 2009 to circumvent the Iowa DNR’s rulemaking on applying manure over frozen and snow-covered ground. Then they failed in 2010 to win passage of a bill designed to weaken Iowa’s newly-adopted regulations on manure storage and application.

But this year, the Iowa Pork Producers Association succeeded in convincing state lawmakers to relax requirements for CAFO operators to be able to store their own manure properly. All they had to do was dress up their effort as an attempt to help families with aspiring young farmers.

Governor Terry Branstad has created a new position at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown for retired Brig. Gen. Jodi Tymeson, a former state legislator who currently directs the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs.

Strangely, the governor and his staff deny having any concerns about the leadership of Iowa Veterans Home Commandant David Worley.

I’ve been watching for signs that Republican State Senator Sandy Greiner might retire rather than run for re-election in 2014. Although she has more legislative experience than most of her GOP colleagues and was an early backer of Bill Dix’s effort to become minority leader, she didn’t join the Republican leadership team after Dix became head of the caucus last November.

If Greiner seeks another term in the Iowa Senate, I believe she would be favored to hold what looks like a swing district on paper. But in the last few days I’ve been wondering whether she might run into trouble during a Republican primary. I’ve posted some thoughts on this scenario after the jump, along with a map and the latest voter registration totals from Senate district 39.

Less than 24 hours after the Republican-controlled Iowa House approved language to enact Governor Terry Branstad’s Healthy Iowa Plan, the Iowa Senate voted on party lines today (26 to 24) to reject the House version of Senate File 296. A conference committee will now attempt to work out a compromise on whether to expand Medicaid to all Iowans earning up to 138 percent of the poverty line, as the 2010 federal health care reform law envisioned.

After the jump I’ve posted a video of Senate President Pam Jochum speaking on the Senate floor today to contrast Medicaid expansion with the governor’s plan. I’ve also enclosed details on Branstad’s highly implausible claim that his plan would cost poor Iowans less out of pocket than expanding Medicaid. Senate Democrats have pointed out that Iowans living in poverty could never afford the co-pays and premiums envisioned in the Healthy Iowa Plan.

Finally, I’ve added below excerpts from the Iowa Hospital Association’s latest blog post explaining why Medicaid expansion is a better choice than the governor’s plan.

Today the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee voted to appoint a special investigator to look into allegations that Republican State Senator Kent Sorenson broke Senate rules against being paid for political campaign work. It was the least they could do, in light of testimony submitted recently by U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann’s former chief of staff. Even so, two Republicans on the Committee voted against launching an investigation. Jack Whitver claimed the action would encourage “frivolous” ethics charges to be investigated regardless of supporting evidence. Jerry Behn said the complaint was based on “hearsay,” even though e-mail correspondence and an affidavit attested to Sorenson receiving indirect payments.

Republican Senator Sandy Greiner voted with the three Democrats on the Ethics Committee (Wally Horn, Joe Seng, and Dick Dearden) to launch an investigation. O.Kay Henderson posted audio from the committee meeting at Radio Iowa. Horn emphasized the need to protect Iowa’s first in the nation status for the presidential race. Greiner said she hoped the investigator would find Sorenson to be “as pure as the driven snow” but noted, “there’s going to be a cloud over this entire chamber if we don’t attempt to get to the bottom of this.”

Sorenson claims he is an innocent victim of a “witch hunt” and submitted documents in his defense to the Ethics Committee. Iowa Senate Secretary Mike Marshall told journalists that the complaint “still could ultimately be dismissed after the investigation.”

LATE UPDATE: On May 10, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady signed an order naming Des Moines attorney Mark Weinhardt “special counsel” to investigate these allegations. Background on Weinhardt is after the jump.

Last night the Iowa House approved by 51 votes to 49 a version of Governor Terry Branstad’s alternative to expanding Medicaid. Two Republicans opposed the plan, but State Representative Dave Heaton fell in line despite his major doubts about the bill.

Details on the vote and highlights from the debate are after the jump.

For months, I’ve been wondering if and when some Republican lawmakers would balk at supporting Governor Terry Branstad’s “costs more, covers less” alternative to expanding Medicaid in Iowa.

For the first time yesterday, an Iowa House Republican said he may not vote for Branstad’s plan. I doubt it’s a coincidence that the wavering lawmaker is unusually knowledgeable about health care services in Iowa.

Shortly after Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds ruled out running for U.S. Senate next year, Republican State Senator Joni Ernst posted on Facebook, “I will be considering a run for US Senate.”

Today Ernst and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey discussed the factors influencing their decision on whether to run for Senate.

Following up on last Friday’s post, Michele Bachmann’s former chief of staff Andy Parrish signed an affidavit yesterday containing details on State Senator Kent Sorenson’s compensation for work on the Bachmann presidential campaign.  

Two months ago, the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee voted to table allegations that Republican State Senator Kent Sorenson received improper payments as Iowa chair of Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign. This week a former Bachmann campaign staffer confirmed that he will soon submit testimony to the committee about the arrangement.

State Senator Dennis Guth demonstrated today that he merits strong consideration in any search for the most clueless Iowa legislator.  

Today (April 12), Midwest Energy News ran the first coverage I've seen on an Iowa district court ruling in favor of allowing solar installers to install PV systems on a customers property and enter into a power purchase agreement with that customer.While great news, I'll explain why you may not want to get overly excited over this development. I'll apologize in advance for sounding like a grumpy curmudgeon. I'm a fun guy,Really!!

There are reasons I'm sounding glass half empty here. First, this ruling could be appealed (and over turned by a higher court). This happened in 2005 when the Iowa Supreme Court reversed its ruling that required rural electric cooperatives to offer net metering. Let”s hope this recent ruling fares better. Still, as the good folks quoted in the article note, this decision will no doubt influence other court and utility commission rulings around the country. That's good news.

The next reason I'm only moderately excited here is that this ruling only affects one financing method for solar PV, not any of the underlying regulatory changes necessary for its use to become widespread in Iowa. Many Iowans don't have access to net metering or standard interconnection procedures (investor owned utilities only, not RECs and Municipals). They also can't get a fair price for electricity sales. Remember that feed in tariff legislation I've been blogging about? The state Senate Democrats were unable to bring SF372 to the senate floor for a vote. Chalk up another one for the utility lobby. So, if you're dealing with any or all of these issues, you probably don't care much about leasing a PV system. Your potential PV system salesman won't be very interested either.

Also, there are ways to structure a lease agreement without entering into a Power Purchase agreement with your PV salesman. Ideally, leases should also save you money over your current monthly electric bill and eventually enable you the option to own the asset. Leasing does have its place, schools, hospital, and other non-profit entities will be interested for sure.

Finally, my opinion is that third party PPA leasing will be mostly used by customers interconnecting to Alliant energy, a utility with relatively high Iowa retail electric rates, net metering, and standard interconnection procedures. I see this as a continuation of the unequal experience Iowans have when trying build renewable energy systems. Solar installs in Alliant Energy service territory have become fairly easy and will become commonplace. Iowans working with other Iowa utilities could have more difficulties or find out it is almost impossible to build the same system. This unequal treatment for Iowa ratepayers will most likely result in more constituent calls to Iowa legislators to fix these regulatory issues and level the playing field in Iowa. Hopefully Iowa policy advocates will also unite and send a clear message to Iowa legislators about the policy changes Iowa needs to advance locally owned renewable energy. This court ruling should help move our state in the right direction.

 Gregg Heide

renewablefarmerblogspot.com 

Last week Governor Terry Branstad finally introduced legislation to enact his Healthy Iowa Plan instead of the Medicaid expansion foreseen under the 2010 federal health insurance reform law. Strangely, neither the governor’s office nor the Iowa House Republican caucus held a news conference or even posted a press release about House Study Bill 232. The bill arrived at the statehouse on Thursday, April 4, after many legislators had left for the weekend.

So far House and Senate Republicans appear united behind Branstad’s approach, while the governor’s office strives to counter the obvious case against his plan (costs more, covers less). I’ve posted arguments for both sides and other news links after the jump.

Catching up on the week’s news at the statehouse, the Iowa Senate rejected two of Governor Terry Branstad’s nominees for the Board of Regents on Monday, and the governor withdrew two other nominees who were headed for trouble in the upper chamber. Details on the votes and thoughts about the implications are after the jump.

Governor Terry Branstad has invested a lot of political capital in education reform. His staff organized a large conference on the topic in 2011, featuring U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other nationally-recognized speakers. Later that year, the governor rolled out an ambitious blueprint for education reform, which was a focus of his “Condition of the State” speeches to state lawmakers in 2012 and 2013. Branstad wants something bigger and better than the narrowly-focused education reform deal approved last spring. To encourage legislators to work harder on this issue, the governor has even held up K-12 school funding decisions that should have been made a year ago under Iowa law.

Iowa House and Senate members are now negotiating over education reform bills approved in each chamber on party lines. But Branstad’s past use of his line-item power is standing in the way of broad legislation.  

Democratic State Senator Jeff Danielson has not ruled out running for Congress in the open first district next year. I contacted Danielson after State Senator Liz Mathis confirmed on Saturday that she will not seek to replace Bruce Braley. Danielson responded on April 7, “I’m not actively seeking any other office at this time. I’m focused on the work of the Cedar Valley in the [legislative] session.” When I asked whether he might consider a Congressional bid after the session ends, Danielson responded yesterday, “I am keeping all options open for 2014.”

Danielson represents Iowa Senate district 30, covering most of Cedar Falls and part of Waterloo in Black Hawk County. He was just re-elected to a third four-year term in 2012, so he would not have to give up his current position to run for Congress next year. If he won the Democratic primary and the general election in IA-01, there would be a special election in Senate district 30 in early 2015. Republicans have a slight voter registration advantage in that district, but no-party voters have a plurality.

Danielson’s district includes the University of Northern Iowa campus, so he has been a vocal advocate for higher education funding in the Iowa Senate. He has also been a leading voice for better disclosure of campaign contributions. He supports a federal constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and limit corporate campaign gifts. In Danielson’s latest re-election campaign, he focused on bipartisan work to support main street businesses and fully fund services Iowans depend on. He also emphasized his commitment to “protecting health care choices for women.”

In an ideal world, evidence that more than half of Midwest rivers and streams can’t support aquatic life would inspire policy-makers to clean up our waterways. Rivers that are suitable for swimming, fishing, and other recreation can be a huge economic engine for Iowa communities.

We live in Iowa, where most of our lawmakers take the Patty Judge view: “Iowa is an agricultural state and anyone who doesn’t like it can leave in any of four directions.”

Yesterday the Iowa House approved a bill to relax manure storage regulations for large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). All of the House Republicans and two-thirds of the Democrats supported this bad legislation. Details on the bill and the House vote are below.

The FAMiLY Leader’s strange obsession with the Iowa Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth is well-established. Last year, the socially conservative organization led by Bob Vander Plaats was so focused on getting Governor Terry Branstad to drop his affiliation with this conference that they were too “busy” to protest as the governor wined and dined the future Communist ruler of China (world leader in coerced abortions).

The FAMiLY Leader was at it again last week, throwing a fit over the 8th Annual Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth scheduled for April 3. For this post, I don’t want to focus on the “ludicrous” concerns raised by people like Chuck Hurley (“Stop coming after my kids and other people’s kids with evil propaganda”). I don’t want to focus on how Branstad “ducked rather than draw fire from name-callers” with this weak response to the controversy.

Today I’m more interested in sixteen Republican lawmakers who showed their solidarity with the FAMiLY Leader by making an idiotic promise they can’t possibly keep.

Last night the Iowa Senate approved Senate File 296, a bill to expand Medicaid, on a strictly party-line vote of 26 to 23. You can listen to the entire Senate debate (approximately 90 minutes) at Radio Iowa. I’ve posted highlights from the debate after the jump, along with the full list of 52 organizations that have registered their support for Senate File 296. Some corporations and organizations have have registered their lobbyists as undecided on Senate File 296, but at this writing, not a single organization is registered against the Medicaid expansion.

School districts across Iowa are flying blind with less than a month left to certify their budgets for the coming fiscal year. Although Iowa’s state revenues are rising and expected to grow more next year, administrators have no idea whether K-12 district budgets may increase, and if so, by how much.

Students and teachers will pay the price for the decision by Iowa House Republicans and Governor Terry Branstad to hold school funding hostage to education reform.

Anyone who follows the Iowa legislature has frequent occasion to wonder how someone that ignorant got elected to the Iowa House or Senate. But every once in a while, a spectacularly clueless act grabs our attention. Last week a little-known first-term state representative made himself a contender for the title of Iowa’s most clueless lawmaker.

UPDATE: Not so fast–see today’s news, added at the end of this post.

Yesterday Rob Portman of Ohio became the first sitting Republican U.S. senator to endorse marriage equality. In a guest editorial for the Columbus Post-Dispatch, Portman explained that he reconsidered his opinion on gay marriage after his son came out of the closet.

As a rule, I welcome any public support for marriage equality from Republican ranks. It’s nice to see a current elected official join the long list of campaign professionals and former GOP office-holders who support civil marriage rights. Still, something about Portman’s comments yesterday rubbed me the wrong way.

Iowa Senate Democrats offered Governor Terry Branstad a compromise this week to address his concerns that the federal government will not keep its promises to fund the Medicaid expansion provided under the 2010 health care reform law. Follow me after the jump for details on their latest offer and a cost comparison of Medicaid expansion and Branstad’s “Healthy Iowa Plan.”

Governor Terry Branstad traveled to Fort Madison yesterday to discuss a fertilizer plant project involving the largest tax incentive package in Iowa history. Previewing a likely theme of his re-election campaign next year, Branstad spun questions over his administration’s handling of the Orascom deal into an attack on Iowa Senate Democrats and the Koch brothers.

Expanding Medicaid in Iowa would add nearly $2.2 billion to the state’s economy, create an estimated 2,362 jobs, and save state government about $1.6 billion, according to a new study. For now, Governor Terry Branstad is sticking to his alternative plan for covering some low-income Iowans, but Senator Tom Harkin predicted last week that federal officials will not approve a waiver for Branstad’s approach.

Follow me after the jump for details on those stories and more about Medicaid in Iowa. I’ve also enclosed a moving personal statement State Senator Mary Jo Wilhelm delivered today about Iowans who can’t afford health insurance.

Iowa received a mediocre “C” grade on the Sunlight Foundation‘s new Open Legislative Data Report Card, designed to compare “how state legislatures make their data publicly available.”  

During 2011 and 2012, the Iowa Senate was our state’s firewall against the social conservative agenda. The Republican-controlled Iowa House passed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, sweeping limits on abortion rights (twice), a “stand your ground” bill and a constitutional amendment that would invalidate virtually all restrictions on guns. All of those bills died in the Democratic-controlled state Senate.

Social issues have never been a priority for Iowa House leaders. They blocked a floor vote on a “personhood” bill in 2011 and steered clear of extremist crusades like impeaching Iowa Supreme Court justices and replacing gun permit laws with “constitutional carry.” Still, I expected House Republicans to cover the usual bases during this year’s legislative session.

Instead, almost every high-profile bill on so-called family values failed to win House committee approval and therefore died in the legislature’s first funnel deadline last Friday. That includes some mainstream conservative efforts as well as freak show bills like ending no-fault divorce or barring county recorders from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Most amazing to me, House Republicans no longer have the votes to pass a constitutional amendment restricting marriage to one man and one woman.