Copycat Bills Break the Iowa Mold

Close the back-door to outside extremists

Feb 03, 2024

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"Do your own work," Miss Cameron admonished me and my third grade school classmates. None of us wanted to be called a copycat. But anyone who has watched the Iowa legislature over the past eight years surely has noticed the parade of copycat legislation masquerading as legitimate responses to the needs of Iowans.

Last year, the governor again made it her priority to pass private school vouchers, sending $7,635 per student in public funds to pay for private school students. This time, she signed the bill into law two weeks after dropping an expanded version of her failed 2022 bill into the laps of legislators. The law will eliminate any household income limits in year three--when Iowa will join the ranks of six other states with universal school voucher programs, including Arizona and Florida.

Other 2023 laws taken off the shelf and placed in the same shopping cart of out-of-state solutions in search of real Iowa problems were:

· Parental rights, including the Governor's embrace of school book bans led by the Florida-based group, Moms for Liberty.

· Relaxing child labor protections by eliminating work permits, loosening age verifications, and increasing maximum daily work hours of minors as well as waivers for hazardous types of jobs, under specific conditions. (14 states also introduced or enacted by 2023.)

· Six weeks abortion ban passed in a special session, and now at the Iowa Supreme Court for the second time in five years. (More than a dozen states have banned or severely restricted abortion.)

· Transgender bans: Legislation banning gender-affirming care, and barring transgenders from using bathrooms aligning with their gender.

· Tightening of Medicaid and SNAP requirements – imposing new asset tests, and paying a private company to perform regular checks on eligibility.

· Diversity, equity and inclusion. Requiring the State Board of Regents to review DEI programs at state universities, following in the footsteps of bans in Florida and Texas.

These laws came on the heels of bans on teaching critical race theory, a series of expanded gun rights laws – and more.

Playbook cheats Iowans

Several years ago I realized I was sending an overwhelming number of emails to my legislators, asking, "Where are these bills coming from?" As an Iowa native, and long-time resident, they surely didn't reflect Iowa values, or the concerns of boots-on-the-ground Iowans. For instance, in 2017, I concluded a letter about dismantling collective bargaining for Iowa public service workers, "I beg you and your Republican colleagues to stop this extremism and quit trying to turn Iowa into Wisconsin or Kansas."

Slowly I came to realize that the most divisive legislation was part of a playbook for Republican- governed states. I learned how a small network of right-wing, libertarian-leaning think tanks with funding from mega-rich corporate folks like Koch Industries was behind it.

According to a study by the Associated Press, 130 transgender bills were introduced in 40 state legislatures in 2023. A half dozen states passed universal school choice in 2023. Child labor, abortion, Medicaid and SNAP restrictions, you name it. They're in the playbook created by the State Policy Network (spn.org).

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is one of the most well-known. Another Florida-based conservative think tank, the Foundation for Government Accountability, was founded in 2011. A 2023 Washington Post email investigation, combined with research by the nonpartisan political watchdog group, OpenSecrets, revealed that it employs 115 lobbyists in 22 states operating as the Opportunity Solutions Project. The Family Research Council testifies before legislators and advances legislation against LBGTQ people under the guise of religious freedom. Oh, and don't overlook the Goldwater Institute, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, the Cato Institute, or Americans for Prosperity.

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The State Policy Network writes white papers, bill text, and its member legislators become "stealth lobbyists". It's referred to as the IKEA model; all state legislators need to do is to follow the instruction manual, and come up with an Allen wrench to complete it. This model legislation proceeds in lock-step from one statehouse to the next.

Whatever happened to the committee process of developing legislation in response to the concerns of Iowans? You know, reviewing draft proposals that are revised by policy experts, debated, and passed, following public input? This process might have saved the governor some embarrassment when one of her top proposals, the AEA overhaul, received mixed reviews right out of the gate.

Are Iowans aware that our most divisive and extreme laws are being drafted by out-of-state corporate think tanks working in tandem with our state legislators? Should journalists and political leaders be doing more to inform Iowans?

Ignoring Iowa's real challenges

This year's session appears to fit into much the same mold, along with a couple of Republican anti-tax bills on steroids.

· Child labor to solve child care worker shortages (expands on last year)

· Speed up of income tax cuts before the 2022 tax cuts are fully phased in, with the goal of reaching a flat 3.5% income tax in 2024

· Pass a plan to eliminate Iowa's state income tax (Florida and Texas have none)

· Tighten Iowa's already strong restrictions on foreign ownership of farmland; jumping on the bandwagon with a host of other states)

· Hiring chaplains at public schools to counsel students (Texas model)

· Animated anti-abortion video for health classes, first grade through senior year

· Religious freedom legislation to thwart government actions that "burden" the personal exercise of religion (in other words, allow for discrimination.)

Iowa's proposed AEA overhaul may not stem from a model bill. However, Gov. Reynolds certainly has hammered on the point that Iowa is the only state that gives the funding directly to AEAs, instead of to schools. "No Iowan asked for this bill," stated Sen. Molly Donahue (D-Cedar Rapids).

Legislation to remove gender identify as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act will not advance. However, Gov. Reynolds has a new bill defining the words, sex, woman, and man. Rep. Skyler Wheeler (R-Hull) has dismissed opposition from businesses regarding the religious freedom bill, saying that other states have enacted conservative policies while experiencing economic growth.

Where are the bipartisan bills to address the everyday challenges of Iowans, including:

· Childcare shortages

· Iowa's second-highest cancer incidence rate

· Improving water quality

· Gun safety, in the wake of Perry school shootings

· Raising the minimum wage

· Universal pre-school

Hijacking Iowa's future

How many times have you heard, "Iowa is the only state that does this, or Iowa is the only state that doesn't do that"? For instance, Iowa is the only state with the requirement for gender balance on state, county, and city boards. In other words, Iowa doesn't fit the mold. Why is this automatically assumed to be a bad thing? Is it possible that Iowa has come up with a unique solution or that it's an outlier on certain issues because it suits Iowa values and priorities?

yellow green and white map — Photo by Nico Smit on Unsplash

Gov. Reynolds has been imitating Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis for years, starting with pushing back on Covid-19 restrictions. DeSantis has bragged about the Florida blueprint, remarking that Iowa should be called "The Florida of the Midwest". Reynolds piggybacked onto his statement, saying, "Florida is the Iowa of the Southeast, and we're doing everything we can to continue that narrative." But after she endorsed DeSantis this year, he failed to gain any traction. Maybe Iowans don't want this state to be Florida? Interestingly, most of the Moms for Liberty candidates also were defeated in last fall's Iowa school board elections.

How many times have you said, "This isn't the Iowa I know." Iowa is a centrist, middle-of-the-road, pragmatic state. It's been a welcoming, compassionate state, as demonstrated by Republican governor Bob Ray's leadership in re-settling Southeast Asians in the 1970s following the Vietnam War. Most of all, Iowa has been a leader in public education. Where are Iowa's values represented by this knock-off, pre-fabricated legislation?

I repeat. Do Iowans know that corporations and special interests are paying to play to get in the game of legislating under the table? It's estimated that about one quarter of state legislators in the U.S. are ALEC members, but ALEC doesn't disclose its members or donors. How do Iowans find out if their legislators are ALEC members? https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iowa_ALEC_Politicians. Don't we need to spread the word about this concerted effort to interfere with and undermine our democracy? Shouldn't these think tanks and policy reform groups be stripped of their tax-exempt status?

Our pioneer ancestors were rugged individualists who blazed a trail to Iowa. They wouldn't be rounded up like this, and driven over a cliff like a herd of stampeding buffaloes. They believed in the values of public education, building one-room schoolhouses, working together, and paying their share to construct good roads and provide for vital infrastructure and civic institutions. They did it all for the common good.

I still can hear Miss Cameron's words ringing in my ears: "Show me your work!" Too bad she isn't here today to shame Iowa legislators for ceding their powers to undemocratic, out-of-state extremists, and ignoring the will of the people. Let Iowa be Iowa!

“Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.”– James W. Frick, University of Notre Dame