Governor Terry Branstad issued two new executive orders last week. One directive rescinded 12 executive orders issued between 1998 and 2009, including two that were intended to make state government operate more efficiently. Branstad’s other order granted “stakeholder groups” new levers for blocking potentially “burdensome” administrative rules.

Highlights from the new and the disappeared executive orders are after the jump.

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz has asked a Polk County district court judge to dismiss a lawsuit over emergency voter roll maintenance rules and reject the plaintiffs’ efforts to prevent the state from implementing the new procedures. Accompanied by Attorney General Tom Miller at a joint press conference today, Schultz made his case for the new rules and the procedure through which he enacted them. This pdf file contains Schultz’s affidavit and supporting documents filed with the Polk County district court on August 16. The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and the League of United Latin American Citizens filed a lawsuit on August 8 challenging the rules.

After the jump I’ve posted the full text of the Secretary of State’s press release and transcribed a timeline Schultz provided to reporters today. I also enclosed details on the normal administrative rulemaking process, which provides opportunities for public comment and legislative review before new rules go into effect. While Miller defends the new rules as a “balance between ensuring voting integrity and preventing voter suppression,” I share the Des Moines Register’s view that Schultz’s proposed procedure “could prompt some legitimately registered voters to withdraw their registration to avoid risking criminal prosecution.”

CORRECTION: The Administrative Rules Review Committee will consider this matter during its next meeting on September 11, due to a scheduling conflict with the Secretary of State’s Office. I enclose below a statement from Joe Royce, the staff to the Administrative Rules Review Committee.

Secretary of State Matt Schultz declined an invitation to speak yesterday at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Iowa legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee. Lawmakers had invited Schultz Sarah Reisetter of the Secretary of State’s office to discuss new voter list maintenance procedures, which were not adopted through the normal rulemaking process and have already prompted a lawsuit.

Governor Terry Branstad confirmed yesterday that his administration will not take steps to limit Medicaid funding of abortions without further action by the Iowa legislature.

What’s on your mind this weekend, Bleeding Heartland readers? I’ve enjoyed almost everything about the 2012 Summer Olympics, except for NBC’s atrocious coverage. They don’t even show most of the finalists in the diving or gymnastics events. Their evening broadcasts ignore almost all the events lacking Americans as medal contenders. They don’t broadcast the marquee track and field events live. Worst of all, they show extended previews of lousy-looking new sitcoms during their prime-time Olympics recaps.

Other news that caught my eye this weekend: U.S. Representative Mazie Hirono won yesterday’s U.S. Senate primary in Hawaii. She faces former Republican Governor Linda Lingle this November for the seat left open by retiring Democratic Senator Daniel Akaka. Veteran Iowa campaign professional Julie Stauch managed Hirono’s first U.S. House race in 2006, helping her win a crowded Democratic primary.

According to this Associated Press story, Iowa’s county auditors are not happy that Secretary of State Matt Schultz is paying for a Division of Criminal Investigation agent to spend two years investigating alleged voter fraud. That solution in search of a problem will not only cost $140,000 per year, but also leaves a full-time position unfilled in the DCI’s major crimes unit in Council Bluffs. Priorities, priorities.

Opposing all government funding for abortion is settled dogma among Iowa Republican activists and elected officials. For two years in a row, Senate Democrats have blocked attempts to write new restrictions on Medicaid abortion coverage into the budget for the state Department of Human Services. Now DHS Director Chuck Palmer has signaled that taking control of the upper chamber may not give Republicans the power to restrict the choices of low-income women.

Palmer’s action puts Governor Terry Branstad in an awkward position, and a legislature completely under GOP control could create a political nightmare for Branstad, a proud “pro-lifer” throughout his career.

An Iowa House member suggested last week that the state Environmental Protection Commission went “beyond the intent of the law” by calling a closed session to discuss a decision related to a hog lot expansion in Poweshiek County. However, a spokesperson for the Iowa Attorney General’s Office suggested that a “contested administrative law case that involves legal briefs, hearings, decisions, appeals” qualifies as a circumstance permitting a closed session under the Iowa Code.

At least 28 eagles died from lead poisoning in Iowa between September 1, 2011 and April 15, 2012, according to data collected by the non-profit Saving Our Avian Resources. The real figure could be significantly higher, and even this statistic casts doubt on claims that hunting with lead ammunition does no harm to wildlife.

Governor Terry Branstad will seek legislative action to increase pension contributions from Iowa’s police officers and professional firefighters. The change would offer relief for city budgets while cutting into the paychecks of public safety workers.

Despite finishing a distant third in the June 5 primary, John Landon won a district nominating convention last night to be the Republican candidate in the new Iowa House district 37. Since Democrats did not field a candidate in the Ankeny area district, Landon is in effect guaranteed a seat in the Iowa House for the next two years. I’ve posted background on Landon and the House district 37 campaign after the jump.

No one could have predicted that the Food Bank of Iowa would have trouble this summer getting adequate supplies to “a network of 280 organizations providing food to people in 42 counties.” Oh wait, everyone could have predicted that, because donations to food banks typically drop during the warm months, not only in Iowa but all over the country. Meanwhile, demand for food banks increases, particularly among families with hungry children not receiving free school lunches during the summer.

The $500,000 state appropriation to the Iowa Food Bank Association, which Governor Terry Branstad blocked, wouldn’t have entirely filled the gap for the Food Bank of Iowa and seven other food banks around the state, but it would have provided more supplies to an organization that is “starving for donations.” Nothing wrong with the governor encouraging private gifts to the Food Bank of Iowa, but the unmet need would be smaller with state funds added to the mix. UPDATE: Radio Iowa reports on shortages at the Omaha-based food bank that serves 16 Iowa counties. Federal funding cuts are an issue, which is all the more reason for state government to step up and help.

The five members of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission unanimously elected a new chairman yesterday: Jeff Lamberti, a former State Senator and Congressional candidate who is president of the Iowa Barnstormers arena football team.  

AFSCME Iowa Council 61 filed a prohibited practice complaint yesterday with the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board, charging that Governor Terry Branstad disregarded Iowa’s collective bargaining law when he signed an executive order allowing state employees to contribute to their health insurance premiums.

Backers of restoring the dam at Lake Delhi in northeast Iowa received good news last week on potential federal funding, as well as a stern reminder about the strings attached to state support for the project.

The U.S. Department of Education has approved “one-year freeze of the target increases that schools are held to under the federal No Child Left Behind Act,” Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass announced on July 2. Iowa had requested the one-year freeze last week, shortly after federal education officials denied Iowa’s application for a waiver from No Child Left Behind requirements.

After the jump I’ve posted statements from Glass with more details and comments on the latest development, along with reaction from Iowa Senate Education Committee Chair Herman Quirmbach. I also added the statement announcing members of the new Instructional Time Task Force, created under Senate File 2284, the education reform bill approved at the end of the legislative session.

Governor Terry Branstad confirmed earlier this week that employee contributions to health insurance premiums will be a major battleground during the next round of contract negotiations with unions representing state workers.  

The Iowa Department of Public Safety announced last week that it is halting electrical inspections of farm buildings. The move is consistent with Governor Terry Branstad’s opinion that the inspections are an unlawful bureaucratic overreach. One way or another, a court will probably decide whether the Electrical Examining Board or the Branstad administration violated state law.

After failing to deliver on its promises, a Cedar Rapids company has agreed to pay back–with interest–a $250,000 loan the Iowa Economic Development Authority awarded last year. Solid reporting by a local journalist may have made the difference between this case and the sad story from Webster City, which Bleeding Heartland discussed here.

The U.S. Department of Education recently denied Iowa’s request for a waiver from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, which went into effect in 2002. Late last week, Governor Terry Branstad and members of his administration traded accusations with Iowa Senate Education Committee Chair Herman Quirmbach over the eternal political questions “What’s to be done?” and “Who’s to blame?”

Governor Terry Branstad recently named Nick Gerhart to be Iowa’s next insurance commissioner. Gerhart will take over the position from Susan Voss at the end of 2012.

The insurance commissioner’s work next year will be important as Iowa implements the federal health insurance reform law or designs its own alternative. For this post, though, I’m more interested in what this appointment reveals about Branstad’s governing style.

Would you like to earn $90,000 a year supervising three employees, about whose work you have no expertise or professional background?

Sorry, you can’t get that job. In fact, you can’t even apply for that job, because Governor Terry Branstad considered no one else before giving the position to retiring Iowa House Republican Steve Lukan.

Governor Terry Branstad’s office confirmed today that former Republican lawmaker Chuck Gipp will be the next director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  

Friday before holiday weekend news dump, part 1: Roger Lande resigned as director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Vice Chair Jeff Lamberti was arrested Friday night and found to have a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.

UPDATE: Added Governor Terry Branstad’s comments below.

The Iowa Senate and House approved a conference committee agreement on education reform yesterday with bipartisan support in both chambers.

“Local control” has long been a rallying cry for conservatives who oppose taking governing decisions away from school districts, city officials, or county supervisors. However, Iowa Senate action this week rejecting a ban on traffic cameras is the latest sign that Iowa Democratic lawmakers are more likely than Republicans to respect this principle over centralized standards.

The Iowa legislature has passed a bill to create a public information board with the power to enforce open-records laws on local government entities.

Thank Gannett for small favors: the successive rounds of newsroom layoffs at the Des Moines Register have spared Clark Kauffman. He’s been tenacious in covering flawed oversight of Iowa’s nursing homes. On Thursday, Kauffman reported on a recent act by Governor Terry Branstad that worries national advocates for senior citizens.

Competing rallies about lean finely textured beef took place on the Iowa State University campus yesterday. Governor Terry Branstad, Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, and Representative Steve King were among the speakers at a rally supporting continued use of the additive used in some ground beef. Before that event, some family farmers joined activists at a rally to “to protest the collusion between industrial meat production and our political system.”

It’s time for a new Bleeding Heartland thread about lean finely textured beef, known to detractors as “pink slime.” A dozen links to news and commentary about this controversy are after the jump.

A senior staffer for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation confirmed this week that plaintiffs will appeal a Polk County District Court’s ruling dismissing their challenge to an important water quality regulation.

A conference committee of Iowa House and Senate members has yet to determine whether the Iowa legislature will allocate $5 million over two years to rebuild the dam at Lake Delhi in Delaware County. However, it’s already clear that more worthwhile lake restoration projects in Iowa will go without funding next year thanks to money set aside to rebuild the Delhi dam.

A U.S. District Court judge in Sioux City dismissed a lawsuit challenging a federal rule banning interstate sales of raw milk. However, the verdict contained a silver lining for Iowans who want to buy and drink this unpasteurized product.  

A Polk County District Court judge rejected a lawsuit by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and two other industry groups seeking to invalidate the most significant water quality regulations adopted in Iowa during the past decade.

In a step forward for small-scale wind power in Iowa, the Iowa Utilities Board designated Johnson County and Floyd County as our state’s first Small Wind Innovation Zones last week.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that Governor Terry Branstad impermissibly used his line-item veto to strike language about Iowa Workforce Development field offices without vetoing the money allocated to fund those offices.

UPDATE: Added Branstad’s reaction below as well as statements from Iowa House and Senate Democrats.

The Iowa Senate voted to confirm former Senator Swati Dandekar to the Iowa Utilities Board this evening by 43 votes to 6 (pdf).  

NOTE: A third Democrat, Nick Volk, filed nominating papers in this district on March 15.

Shelley Parbs announced today that she will run for Iowa Senate district 38. She is the second declared Democratic candidate in this district; the winner of the June primary will face first-term Republican Tim Kapucian, a Senate minority leader and ranking member of the Transportation Committee. Background on Parbs is after the jump, along with election-related developments in the two Iowa House seats that make up Senate district 38.

The Iowa Supreme Court held an unusual evening session on February 21 to hear oral arguments in Governor Terry Branstad’s appeal of a district court ruling that declared two of his line-item vetoes illegal.

Barely a month after being on a winning team, Bob Vander Plaats appears determined not to let anyone forget that he’s the biggest loser in Iowa politics.

Two days after the Iowa Department of Public Health announced plans to appeal a court ruling on same-sex parents’ right to be listed on birth certificates, a new lawsuit challenged the department’s refusal to list a non-birthing spouse on a stillborn baby’s death certificate.