Greetings to you all, Wednesday and Thursday were hectic days as there were some major bills being debated. One of those bills is HF 647 better known as the Child Labor Bill which is a companion bill to SF 542 which was just passed in Senate earlier this week. The bill would allow kids under 16 to work up...Read More

Greetings to you all, Following the second funnel week, there is little left to do, aside from finishing the budgets. The Senate has begun to have their meetings to discuss the budgets but has yet to release any of the numbers. Budgets are an extremely important part of the Legislative process and it’s always a...Read More

Greetings to you all, The Second Funnel week has been in full swing, giving a second chance to some of the bills. The First Funnel week is when a bill will need to make it out of committee within the House or Senate in order to survive, otherwise, that bill is considered dead for this...Read More

Greetings to all, I had a great start to my week when I met with Norman Johnson who is the Chief Executive Officer for the Family YMCA of Black Hawk County. We had an interesting discussion centered around the amazing work that the YMCA does in Black Hawk County. It helps a variety of forms...Read More

Greetings to you all, On Tuesday, I met with Exceptional Persons, Inc. Exceptional Persons, is a private non-profit charitable organization. At EPI, they foster active community participation of the individuals and families we serve while respecting and encouraging their preferences and choices. They came to speak to me in order to close the gap between...Read More

Greetings to you all, It was Research Day in the Capitol on Monday. There were a variety of projects that were presented to those at the Capitol, including myself. I was able to meet some incredible young people from Iowa State and UNI! They were able to speak to me about their various projects and...Read More

Greetings to you all, Funnel Week has been underway this past week, making this one of the most important weeks in the entire session. What this means is bills need to be pushed through committees in order to still have the possibility of becoming law. If they don’t make it past committee, they are then...Read More

Greetings to you all, It was a busy start to the week as the Government Oversight Committee met to discuss book banning in Iowa schools proposed by the majority party. Parents and students from all over Iowa came together in opposition to these book bans. Many students discussed the potential negative impacts these bans would...Read More

Greetings to you all, It was an extremely busy day on Monday, with a variety of important issues being discussed. The biggest one of the night was that of the Government Oversight Committee. The issue at hand was book banning in our Iowa Public Schools. Many came to express their concerns with certain books being...Read More

  Last year, Iowa Republican lawmakers limited the teachings of certain “divisive concepts” from diversity workplace training and curriculum in schools. This year, Republican lawmakers are attempting to micromanage what is taught in social studies classes while banning books that pertain to subjects of race and diversity. We still have a long way to go...Read More