By Tom Chapman
For The Catholic Messenger
A bill that would help offenders reintegrate into society sooner without undermining public safety, which the Iowa Catholic Conference (ICC) supports, has moved forward. The Iowa House voted 88-0 last week in favor of HF 570, which offers discharge credits, educational credits and workforce credits that reduce an individual’s probation term. The maximum reduction of the individual’s probation term earned through these credits may not exceed 40%. In addition, the individual must pay probation fees or court debt or are subject to a payment plan.
Other House-approved bills that move forward to the Senate for consideration by a committee:
HF 864 (approved 88-1) is an effort to protect minors. The bill requires adult websites to perform reasonable age verification of individuals attempting to access obscene material. The bill passed by 88-1.
HF 572 (approved 75-14) would create a new state offense of “smuggling of persons,” which the ICC opposes because federal and state laws already prohibit trafficking in humans. Additionally, some have raised concerns that overzealous officials could interpret the proposed legislation to criminalize providing basic charity to immigrants.
HF 189 (approved 63-33), would allow nonpublic school students to participate in an extracurricular activity in a public school if the nonpublic school does not offer the activity.
Senate bills approved:
SF 288 passed the Senate unanimously and goes to the House. It requires state universities to make reasonable accommodations for students who are pregnant or who have recently given birth. The universities are already making accommodations, but the bill will publicize their availability.
SJR 9 proposes a constitutional amendment to limit the ability of defendants to confront personally in court children or persons with mental health issues. The bill moves to the House. The proposal is in reaction to a state Supreme Court decision that a one-way video system failed to satisfy the Iowa Constitution’s requirements that a defendant be able to confront a witness, face-to-face. If the bill passes the House, it needs to pass again in both chambers in 2027 or 2028 before going to Iowans for a final vote.
Other activity at the State Capitol
SF 599 passed a Senate appropriations subcommittee. The bill implements work reporting requirements for the 180,000 people on the Iowa Health and Wellness low-income health insurance program. It’s a subset of the Medicaid program. The Catholic Church values the dignity of work as a way of cooperating with God’s creation. However, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “work reporting requirements have shown clear evidence of creating artificial barriers to care, generating paperwork and bureaucracy while doing little to support people looking for work. These requirements also fail to recognize that most people on Medicaid already work.”
A similar bill, HF 948 is ready for debate in the House. We encourage you to send a note to your legislators on these bills. Go to iowacatholicconference.org/ voter-voice and click on “Red tape, lost coverage.”
HF 248, which passed a Senate Workforce subcommittee, would require businesses to treat employees who adopt a child under 6 years of age in the same manner as a biological parent. The legislation has already passed the House.
A House Ways and Means subcommittee recommended passage of HSB 223, which legalizes online casino gambling with real money. The ICC opposes the bill. Gambling becomes morally unacceptable when people deprive themselves of what is necessary to provide for their needs or those of others. Gambling through phone apps causes a special danger because the great majority of people have a smartphone.
HF 970 passed the House Appropriations Committee last week. “Double Up Food Bucks” provides matching funds for people on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to purchase fruits and vegetables. The bill appropriates $1 million for “Double Up Food Bucks” but conditions it on getting the federal government’s approval for narrowing the eligible food list. A USDA report has suggested that SNAP participants can face heightened stigma and embarrassment due to food choice scrutiny. This may discourage eligible individuals from participating.
Refugee Day on the Hill
Despite the current pause in the federal refugee resettlement program, staff from Iowa resettlement agencies visited the Capitol to inform legislators about their work. The Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa coordinated the Refugee Day on the Hill, which also included advocacy training.
A think tank in Iowa, the Common Sense Institute, has published a study on how demographics are shaping Iowa’s economy. Among the findings, “Post pandemic, Iowa has relied primarily on international migration for population growth. Since 2021, Iowa’s population has grown by 1.34% or about 60% more than it would have grown without foreign immigration … Birth rates are shrinking in Iowa.”
Dozens of life-saving CRS projects terminated
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has issued the following statement in response to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement on completion of the International Humanitarian Assistance review:
“As part of the Catholic Church, Catholic Relief Services believes that human life is a precious gift from God that must be protected and nurtured. Over the past six weeks, CRS has had to halt much of our U.S. government supported work due to the lack of payments: food in warehouses could not be distributed to the hungry, and women and children could not get vital health and nutrition services.
“In addition, last week’s termination of dozens of CRS’ life-saving projects will permanently cut off critical aid to more than 20 million people worldwide. Eleven of these terminated projects had received humanitarian waivers. These programs do more than save lives. They help lift communities and countries out of poverty. They support local, faith-based and church partners that provide services and stability to their communities and to their countries … We urge the administration to reverse these terminations and issue prompt payments to continue this life-saving and life-giving assistance.”
Contact members of Congress (congress.gov) in support of these lifesaving programs.
(Tom Chapman is executive director of the Iowa Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of Iowa’s bishops.)
