Iowa Legislature adjourns after passing budget that includes new voter ID requirements

The Iowa Legislature adjourned its coronavirus-disrupted 2020 session Sunday after a marathon overnight debate that saw the passage of a mostly status quo budget and a controversial expansion of the state's voter ID program.

The Senate passed the proposed $7.78 billion budget at about 6 a.m. Sunday after debating the bill overnight. The House resumed session at 10 a.m. to finalize it. The Legislature officially adjourned at 1:38 p.m.

In addition to the budget, the Legislature's Saturday night marathon included the passage of a bill that would require women to wait 24 hours after an initial appointment before they could receive an abortion. That bill now goes to Gov. Kim Reynolds.

House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, praised lawmakers for their work on issues throughout the session, including the state budget, which had to be adjusted as the coronavirus pandemic caused state revenues to drop.

"We’ve left ourselves in a situation that we’ve been able to fulfill our commitments that we’ve made," Grassley said in his closing comments.

But Democrats said the budget doesn't do enough to support Iowa's health care infrastructure and were furious that the bill included a last-minute addition of new voter identification requirements for early voting.

"Here we are, on what appears to be the final day of session, debating a budget that comes back to us during a tough time for all Iowans. And sadly, for them, it also has only gotten worse overnight," said Rep. Chris Hall, D-Sioux City. "They debated it until 6 in the morning only to come back with amendments that suppress the right to vote in this state."

Lawmakers returned to the Capitol earlier this month after the first cases of the coronavirus pandemic were confirmed here in March, leading the Legislature to take a two-and-a-half month break. The two-week sprint to finish the session included action to protect businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits, address police misconduct, adjust the state's medical marijuana program and change rules regarding election procedures. It did not include passage of a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to felons, a priority for Reynolds.

Reynolds and lawmakers started the session with ambitious goals to reform the state's tax code to provide more funding for water quality and mental health programs, implement work requirements for Iowa benefits such as Medicaid, and make child care more affordable. But they ultimately left those plans by the wayside as the pandemic limited the Legislature's time and resources.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver said the Legislature's actions will help Iowa's businesses rebound from the toll of the coronavirus. 

"The path to recovery starts now," he said in a statement. "I believe we can get back to where our economy was, and keep moving forward to get Iowans back to work. The coronavirus will not last forever, but the actions we took this week will help put our state back on a path to prosperity."

Reynolds in a statement applauded the Legislature's work to pass bills on many of her priorities, including a bill addressing police misconduct.

“In the closing days of the legislative session, Future Ready Iowa, Empower Rural Iowa and historic police reform passed with unanimous support," she said. "Paired with comprehensive changes to our licensure laws, these significant steps will ensure every Iowan, regardless of their background or circumstance, has an opportunity to find success."

Voter ID language dominates debate

Democrats were furious to see voter ID requirement language attached to the budget that had been stripped out of an earlier election bill after House Republicans and Democrats reached a compromise.

Voters who go to their county courthouse or auditor's office to vote early in person would now have to provide ID before receiving their ballots. And if a voter provides incomplete or incorrect information when requesting a mailed absentee ballot, the county auditor's office would be required to contact the voter first by telephone and email, then by physical mail, rather than using an existing voter registration database to fill in the blanks.

"This is going to make it harder and more onerous to count votes. It’s going to disenfranchise voters because now typos and administrative errors from voters are going to be harder to fix to get the ballots out to the voters," said Rep. Todd Prichard, D-Charles City.

Republicans said the change is about verifying that everyone who requests an absentee ballot is an eligible voter. The voter's contact information is included on the absentee ballot request form.

"The intent of this is to ensure that the person that actually wants a ballot is the person that gets a ballot. This is not really big draconian policies. This is not voter suppression, no matter how many times you say it," said Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton.

Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, said Democrats took Kaufmann at his word when he reached a deal removing the language from the earlier election bill.

"Rep. Kaufmann, you’ve broken a trust. We won’t make that mistake again," she said.

The standalone election bill, which has been sent to the governor's desk, would require the Iowa Secretary of State to seek approval from a panel of lawmakers before changing election procedures. The measure originally would have prohibited Secretary Paul Pate, a Republican, from automatically mailing out absentee ballot request forms to registered voters, as he did in Iowa’s record-setting June 2 primary. More than 80% of the people who voted did so by absentee ballot.

Budget keeps spending mostly the same

The budget keeps state spending for the next fiscal year at the same level as in the current year for most Iowa agencies to attempt to offset a shortfall of revenue caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic delivered a blow to Iowa's coffers as business activity shut down and unemployment skyrocketed. The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the United States is officially in a recession. 

The state relies primarily on sales and income taxes for its revenue, and the state's Revenue Estimating Conference last month dropped its estimate for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, by $360 million. That number represents a $65 million year-over-year drop from the current fiscal year.

Sen. Michael Breitbach, R-Strawberry Point, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the budget will give the state a $311 million cushion if revenue does not meet expectations before it would have to dip into cash reserves or the Taxpayer Trust Fund.

The state will keep its commitment to roughly $100 million in new funding for K-12 education, which Reynolds signed into law earlier in the year. It also increases funding for the Iowa School for the Deaf and Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School by 2.3% to match the funding given to K-12 education.

The budget includes a $32 million increase for Medicaid, a $16.5 million increase for the HAWK-I children's health insurance program, $2.4 million for state trooper overtime pay, $2.1 million for the Eldora Boys State Training School and $600,000 in additional funding for the Glenwood Resource Center.

It reduces funding in some areas. The Iowa Board of Regents will see an $8 million reduction, to be distributed between the three state universities at the board's discretion. The Iowa Judicial Branch will have its budget reduced by $500,000, and the Iowa Secretary of State's office will have its budget reduced by $250,000.

The House and Senate also passed two smaller budget-related bills in the final hours of the session, including a $393.9 million budget bill for the Iowa Department of Transportation, a decrease of $14.1 million from the current year's budget, and a bill distributing $67.3 million to state departments and agencies from Iowa's Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund and Technology Reinvestment Fund.

The state budget will be supplemented by billions in federal stimulus funding, including $1.25 billion that the state received through the CARES Act. Democrats criticized the budget for giving Reynolds and her administration the authority to decide how to spend that money.

"You’re ceding billions of dollars of power — legislative oversight, watchdog power — to the governor and the Department of Management. It’s a status quo budget and they’re going to figure out all the details. But that should be something that we do in this body. And that’s what I learned in high school government class and that’s what we used to do," said Sen. Todd Taylor, D-Cedar Rapids.

Democrats said the bill doesn't invest enough in Iowa's health care infrastructure as the state continues to deal with the pandemic. They recommended more help for hospitals, disabilities resources and children’s mental health.

“We have some resources to invest in our health care system to fight this pandemic," said Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee. "And your budget, essentially, stockpiles money at a time when we need to invest."

The budget bill also includes provisions allowing the Iowa Board of Regents to hire outside legal counsel when needed for complex cases and gives Iowa-based utilities first right of refusal to build high-voltage transmission lines.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

Ian Richardson covers the Iowa Statehouse for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at irichardson@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8254, or on Twitter at @DMRIanR.

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