Iowa lawmakers won't be going back to the statehouse until April 30 at the earliest, due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic.
Legislators suspended the session another 15 days when they met virtually on Thursday afternoon in a Legislative Council hearing.
While lawmakers are away from the statehouse, they are staying busy. Sen. Majority Leader Jack Whitver (R-Ankeny) said that leadership is working through the federal CARES Act to understand how it impacts Iowa.
"There's a lot, obviously in an 800 page law they passed last week," said Whitver. "And so people are still trying to sort through that to see what resources are available and how those can be used. So that's the big first unknown that we're working on every single day."
Whitver acknowledged that the second issue lawmakers will have to work on when they arrive back to the capitol is the state budget. He said it's "impossible" to know right now.
"And as of right now, that is an impossible question to answer based on the fact that a large part of our economy is shut down right now," said Whitver. "And so we're going to need a lot more information about what's happening in our economy before we're ready to to put that budget together."
House Minority Leader Rep. Todd Prichard asked Whitver what the policy priorities would be when the legislative session returns.
"I think it largely depends if we come back on April 30," said Whitver. "And we're ready to go again or if we're pushed off till June, July, August or whenever it is, I think that that has a big bearing on it. But also we just need to sit down with leaders of the House and try to figure out what policy we want to continue to pass. But I have told all of our members to continue to work with our House counterparts on bills that they have been working on."
The measure to continue to suspend the legislative session until April 30 was passed on a bipartisan vote. The meeting lasted about 15 minutes in total.
Lawmakers still have not passed a budget for FY21. The current fiscal year ends June 30, but a bill passed in March before the session was suspended extends this year’s budget through the end of August.
RELATED: The Iowa Legislature takes COVID-19 precautions, how to protect your mental health during a pandemic
