The View From Here

The third week of the ’25 legislative session was a very busy one for me. Subcommittees and research filled my days along with meeting many constituents. We started the week with a Rally for Life and celebrating the steps Iowa has taken to reduce abortion in Iowa and providing more support for pregnant women, families and adoption. I hope we can make further progress to eliminate all abortion in our state.

We had several school bills in the works this week. One of the first things we try to do each session is setting the Supplemental State Aid so schools can get their budgets set for the year. SSB 1053 was passed by the Senate Education Committee setting SSA at an increase of $235 million. This is exactly what the Governor had requested, so if the House agrees this can be laid to rest in a week or so.

Another bill dealing with schools is SF 8, which prohibits a school board from taking action against an employee for using a student’s legal name or the pronoun that matches their sex at birth rather than their “preferred” pronoun.

An Education subcommittee also passed SSB 1036, which would change the school start date to the second to the last day of August.

The Local Government Committee passed a moratorium on increasing the number of casinos in the state. SSB 1069 would limit the number of casinos in Iowa to 19 for the next 5 years. Of course the current casinos are all in favor of limiting expansion. This seems to be an interference with the Racing and Gaming Commission we set up to regulate this industry. I would like to decrease, not increase, gambling in the state. Passing this bill will not do that. I, and many senators, are a little divided on how to vote on this issue.

There are plenty of other issues we dealt with this week in the Senate. I’d like to share a little of my work outside the Capitol building.

I was contacted by a non-profit group that wants to force blood banks to collect and store blood from directed donations. They used to allow a person with a scheduled surgery to bank blood ahead of the surgery so they could receive their own blood or that of another volunteer with a matching blood type. That sounded like a very reasonable accommodation to make when a doctor authorizes this for their patient. Wanting to know why blood banks no longer cooperated with this request, I set up a meeting with the biggest blood bank in Iowa.

They were very gracious in setting up a tour and conversation with the CEO on short notice. I learned many things about the difference between non-profit blood banks and those that collect blood/platelets for pharmaceutical use. Important considerations in deciding to collect and store blood for a directed donation are a couple of facts. First, blood can only be stored for 42 days before use. Second, most surgeries require at least 3.5 units of blood to replace what is lost. That makes it very hard to collect enough blood before a surgery to supply the need of that surgery. If you have only 2 units of blood stored and need 3 or 4, you are getting other blood any way, negating the supposed benefit to self-donation.

As a legislator, I must get the facts before I take action that will affect Iowans. I’d love to have your input on these and any other issues important to you. I am reminded of Proverbs 18:17. The first to plead his case seems just, until another comes and examines him.

I learned years ago to be careful about committing to one side of an issue until I have had a chance to hear both sides.

I will be having 2 forums on Feb. 15.

•League of Women Voters Wake-Up forum at 8:30 in Nevada at the Public Library

•Eggs and Issues at 11:00 at Iowa Central Community College in Webster City, Tom Chelesvig Building