DES MOINES, Iowa — The dust is now settling from the second funnel week at the Iowa Capitol this session. The week serves as a weeding out process bills must make it through to be eligible for a vote.
"This is funnel week, if we don't move bills out today they get met with ill fate," Rep. Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City, said during a State Government Committee meeting.
It was in that meeting that Committee Chair Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton proposed an amendment to a cosmetology bill. The amendment did not deal with barbers or salons, but instead prevents carbon pipeline companies from using eminent domain against private homeowners for the next year.
"The reason this is on a cosmetology bill is because Senate File 2022 is in the Ways and Means Committee and will be taken care of," Kaufmann said. "This is a funnel-proof vehicle. This is about results."
Some Democrats were concerned with this method, and the message they believe it sends to the public on how lawmakers do business.
"My no vote today is not because I don't want to address this, I think we need to," said committee ranking member Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City. "But let's do it in the right way. Let's be transparent with our voters, let's put it on an agenda."
The ammendment passed committee, now moving for a debate before the full House. Just hours later on the House floor, two ammendments were made to a bill aimed at definitions of "wreck or salvage" vehicles.
The first amendment expands liability protections for truckers and caps damages in lawsuits with commercial vehicles. The second would ban businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines for workers.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst questioned wheter the amendments were germane to the debate. Ultimately, House Speaker Pat Grassley agreed with her point, but a motion to suspend the rules allowed lawmakers to vote.
Twelve Republicans voted against the amendments, leading to it failing 48-50 with two representatives absent.