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Bob’s DSM Bulletin (March 16, 2023)

Hope you are enjoying the late winter/early spring weather! It is a bit
tricky determining which route to take back to Sioux City each week.
FVI the trip across Route 20 and down i-35 is not much more than 4
miles longer than the one down I29 and across i—80, but you’d need
to violate the speed limit on the northern route to do it in the same
time frame. Fewer hills though on Route 20.

I’m sure by now that you might have read that we have passed the
realignment bill that will consolidate 37 state agencies into 16.
Contrary to some news and objections, this is NOT a power grab by
Governor Reynolds. The Governor’s decisions on matters of these
agencies are all subject to legislative oversight as are budgetary
appropriations. This bill is projected to save the state as much as $12
million per year. This bill is primarily an administrative realignment,
not a policy realignment, though a few policies would need to be re-
done. it will also cause government to be run more efficiently once it
is in place, expediting many remedies for which citizens might be
seeking relief.

Like most of our bills, however, it is likely not perfect, but it is good. It
will probably need revisions as time goes on, but it is a good start and
something that has not been done for over 40 years. There is some
discussion that the size and scope of our state government should be
examined on a periodic basis to control unnecessary growth that is
contrary to smaller, better, and more efficiency.

A bill that I believe is an excellent bill is HF 507 which will protect
public funds from activist Environmental Social and Governance
policies. It will require that public funds act only in the best financial
interest of the fund and its beneficiaries and not make decisions
based on any political agenda. It prohibits public entities from
entering contracts with companies that participate in economic
boycotts.

Another, I believe, important educational bill was HF 370, which will
give more school board access to information. This cleans up the
code governing Iowa school boards to increase transparency and
access to information. School boards are elected officials who are
commissioned with the task of setting policies which are for the
betterment of the teaching and learning situation in schools. They
should be informed as much as possible about how teaching and
learning is happening in the schools so they can represent their
constituents properly. As of now, the code is silent on this particular
matter, and this bill clarifies the language to permit more
transparency.

We spent a large amount of time this week on the floor of the House
debating and passing a large number of bills. As I write this, we are
entering into the last floor debate of the week to consider 14 more
bills. I will not comment on those until they are passed. My clerk,
Sarah, will have all of those passed listed below for you.

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