Iowa Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Janice Weiner latest constituent newsletter:
First, I want to say thank you – thanks for following along, paying attention, and being involved. Thanks to my caucus and our outstanding caucus staff – we all work as a team, and teamwork was wonderful this session. I feel fortunate to work with them all!
Now that session is (finally) done, I’m still working – but enjoying the little things. Like dropping my granddaughter at school every morning and picking her up in the afternoon. Like going out for ice cream with her in the middle of the week. Like sitting at my dining room table or on my deck to work – with the dogs. It’s why we do the work!
I’m sorry to say that this legislative session got ugly in the end, as the majority party tried to figure out how to bring it to a close. They’ve been in control for a decade, but it did not feel as if they knew how to “land the plane” – end the session. Instead, it felt as if the House and Senate Republicans and Governor’s office were all squaring off in their separate corners of some political boxing match called Iowa, and they had to bring it into multiple extra rounds in order to stagger to the finish.
The signs were there that they were not working together. The first sign, as I’ve noted previously, was that they came into this session with three different proposals on what was supposed to be their signature issue, property tax reform, rather than presenting a unified proposal at the outset, and then battled over it until the final hours of the session. That’s no way to govern. In the end, we had almost no time to work through the final proposal, and then it was thanks to our outstanding staff who were also working on it after 30+ hours of no sleep. One positive about the final bill is that it does not come into effect immediately, which gives us a chance to go back at it and fix problems. Our Republican colleague running the Senate version of the bill, Dan Dawson, essentially fell on his sword to maintain a soft cap and give cities and counties some flexibility. It’s not the bill we would have written, but a “hard cap” – with no flexibility – would have been a death knell for local governments. We’ll be working on this with cities and counties over the interim, no doubt about it.
The second sign was that they ended up with two conference committees. That happens when a bill bounces back and forth between the two chambers and in the end, there is no agreement. When one party controls both the House and the Senate, they’re not *supposed* to end up with conference committees. That means there are fundamental policy disagreements.
The third sign was the amount of sway a lame duck governor held. I’m still trying to understand that. In some cases, she was more aligned with the House than the Senate; in others, she was still pushing her own agenda (on charter schools and on Early Childhood Iowa, for example). The best I can figure is that with the House and Senate Republicans not in sync, she had more room to push her agenda.
The fourth sign was how long it took the majority party to get their act together on a water quality package. While I’m glad they at least finally recognized the need to highlight the issue, and there is some real money in the package, they rolled it out two days before the session drew to a shuddering close – in other words, when we were already well into legislative overtime. And it was, unfortunately, a one-party press conference. There is money for good practices in it, in addition to expanding capacity for the Central Iowa Waterworks to reduce the nitrates in the water. The good agricultural practices funds are again voluntary. And they still don’t like the UI Hydroscience Department – IIHR. Funds for their continuous water monitoring shifted at the last minute to the Department of Natural Resources, and IIHR must now apply for them. Purity tests are not helpful – if there is an issue on which we should be working together, it is water quality.
Then they closed out the session with a bang, not a whimper, pushing through a bill that won’t help Iowa women who need access to telehealth and mifepristone. We already have the worst ratio in the country of OB/GYNs to women – it takes weeks, if not months, to get an appointment. How is a woman in rural Iowa in particular going to be able to get an urgent appointment that lands within the scope of the six-week abortion ban? Maybe that’s the point. It puts women’s lives at risk for a whole host of reasons.
The House also passed the resolution needed to push a measure onto the November ballot that will tie the hands of the legislature when it comes to income taxes. If it passes, a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature would henceforth be needed to raise them. I don’t know anyone who wants to raise taxes on working Iowans. But it’s not responsible to put that on the ballot when we are in year two of a $1 billion plus budget deficit (being backfilled from one-time taxpayer relief funds), when we are bleeding money into the voucher system, funding plenty of Iowans who don’t need the tuition help. It sounds good in theory, but there are huge uncertainties right now – some caused by the “Big Beautiful Bill” and its coming cuts to Medicaid and already existing cuts to ACA subsidies; others caused by the war with Iran and the huge spike in gas and diesel prices that are starting to have serious knock on effects; and some caused by the tariffs. All will hit Iowa hard, including rural Iowa. Meanwhile, wealthy Iowans will continue to get their tax breaks, and if it turns out additional revenue is needed essentially to keep the lights on, it will have to come from somewhere – most likely the most regressive tax, sales tax.
There were also consistent attempts during the session to limit the *next* governor’s power. Here’s the thing: Iowans keep telling us they hate the culture wars; they hate the partisanship and want us to figure out a way to come together and govern for the good of all Iowans. My Senate Democratic Colleagues and I are up for it – but there’s no sign of it in practice. And so far, our majority party colleagues have not paid the price at the ballot box. Again, they didn’t run a single one of our bills – and guess what, there’s no monopoly on good ideas.
In my closing speech that was submitted for the record (we didn’t give them on the Senate side), I noted that at the outset of the session, I’d said that Iowans will remember what we do in this chamber this year. What will they remember? That the majority party was focused on taking away rights, on not helping Iowans – and on doing everything they could this session, just in case they can’t next session. That’s not governing for all Iowans. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
Finally, we saw the beginning of more balance – since we broke the GOP supermajority via special elections in 2025 and were able to vet gubernatorial appointees. That’s a start. We’ll see where we are next session. Again, you for following along – please continue to do so during the interim. It’s an honor to serve you all, regardless of your political leanings. We are public servants, and we work for all Iowans.
Sine Die: The 2026 Legislative Session is Over
Our stop and start week ended with a marathon, 35-hour-plus weekend at the Capitol as the chambers worked to finalize budget details, negotiate policy, and bring the curtain down. Nearly two weeks into overtime, the Senate convened at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 2, and ran straight through until we finally adjourned for the year at 7:08 p.m. on Sunday, May 3.
For this end-of-session newsletter, I’m going to give a brief overview of where things ended up for some of the biggest issues of the year.
The Budget
Republican lawmakers passed a state budget for FY27 that spends just over $9.64 billion. Iowa will now run back-to-back billion-dollar budget deficits and Republican lawmakers will raid our reserves to cover their deficit spending with one-time funds.
In service of filling their massive budget shortfalls, the majority is implementing creative solutions that raise costs for Iowans. HF 2739, for example, is designed to begin filling their Medicaid shortfall by raising taxes on health insurance companies, who, in turn, will pass those tax hikes onto consumers. That means farmers, small business owners, and Iowa families whose healthcare costs are already on the rise will pay more for health insurance. Or take HF 2770, the budget for the justice system, which has a provision to nickel and dime Iowans with increased fees for court filings.
There are some positive pieces to be found in the budget – like expanded funding for water quality efforts – but they are far outweighed by negative elements. Most of the budget pieces that benefit Iowans have been given either status quo funding (no change, regardless of need) or have seen cuts.
Property Tax Reform
In one of the final acts of the 2026 session, the legislature passed SF 2472, a negotiated agreement between the House and Senate on property tax reform.
The bill is not perfect. But it brings real property tax relief for homeowners, avoids the hard cap on our local governments, and moves Iowa away from prioritizing commercial interests.
Our caucus’ guiding principles throughout this effort were that any solution would need to prioritize middle class homeowners and allow our communities to continue providing the essential services on which Iowans rely. That’s why, in the end, the bill saw strong bipartisan support in the Senate.
Eminent Domain
The legislative session concluded without a resolution on this issue.
More Restrictions on Abortion
On the last day of the session, the Senate passed HF 2788, which restricts Iowans’ access to medication abortion. The bill limits telehealth access for mifepristone and misoprostol, requiring patients to now visit a healthcare setting in person in order to receive a prescription. Iowa is already last in the country for OB-GYNs per capita and as healthcare access continues to shrink, especially in rural Iowa, this will severely impact Iowans’ ability to get the reproductive care they need.
Constitutional Handcuff to Go Before Voters
The Iowa House passed SJR 11 on the final day of the session. The joint resolution, which passed through both chambers during the previous General Assembly, and passed the Senate in 2025, would amend the Iowa Constitution to say that any attempt to increase income tax rates in the future – regardless of how dire our fiscal situation may be – will require a two-thirds majority of the general assembly. This is not a requirement for any other fiscal matters – private school vouchers did not require a two-thirds majority for approval, for example. It would also likely mean that in the event the legislature needed to raise revenues, the increase would happen to the state’s sales tax, which disproportionately affects everyday Iowans. The resolution will go before Iowa voters this November.
A Few Positives Worth Noting
While we won’t look back on the 2026 legislative session with fondness, there were a handful of good, bipartisan victories this year that are worth celebrating.
For one, the legislature took some small, positive steps on addressing Iowa’s ongoing cancer crisis. HF 2297 ensures that all new single- and multi-family residential construction includes passive radon mitigation systems. SF 2480 sends $3 million annually to the University of Iowa’s Stead Family Children’s Hospital for pediatric cancer research.
We also unanimously voted to elevate animal torture from a misdemeanor to a felony with HF 2348, and the Agriculture and Department of Natural Resources budget (HF 2771) includes some elements addressing Iowa’s water quality issues.
Stay tuned for more updates as we wait for the governor’s final action on bills approved by the legislature.
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