Status of some bills
No bill is truly dead until the Iowa Legislature adjourns, but here's a sampling of some bills that lived or died in this week's funnel:
DEAD
LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION: All abortions would have been illegal as well as some contraceptives under two bills, House File 153 and Senate File 287.
REPEAL OF 5-CENT CAN DEPOSIT: Iowa won't scrap its 5-cent bottle and can redemption program or increase highway littering fines, as House Study Bill 74 called for. Another approach, to charge a nonrefundable 4-cent fee on all bottles and cans for three years to generate money to help cities start a mandatory curbside recycling program throughout Iowa, also died. That was Senate File 249.
JURY NULLIFICATION: The courts won't be required to inform jurors that they could follow their consciences and refuse to enforce laws they think are wrong or corrupt, as Senate File 318 called for.
FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES: State financial aid will still be awarded to students at for-profit colleges such as the University of Phoenix, Ashford University and Kaplan University, which have an average graduation rate of 33 percent. Senate File 176 would have cut off tuition grants.
FEWER COUNTIES: The state won't start the process to amend the Iowa Constitution to reduce the number of counties in the state from 99 to 50 by the year 2017, as House Joint Resolution 8 proposed.
GREYHOUND RACING: Casinos can't quit subsidizing live dog racing in Iowa. Two bills, Senate Study Bill 1064 and House Study Bill 208, pitched a "soft landing" fee for greyhound owners and kennels and $10 million for the state treasury. Both died.
ALIVE
DRESS CODE: A school district could adopt a dress-code policy that limits students' clothing if officials believe it would improve the health, safety or positive educational environment of students and staff, under House File 212. Currently, a district can prohibit only gang-related apparel.
CELL PHONE TAX INCREASE: The wireless communications surcharge on each cell number in Iowa would go up to $1 per month. The current rate varies, up to 65 cents. Money would help local police, fire and medical rescue personnel comply with federal mandates on bandwidth frequencies, under Senate File 339.
STAND YOUR GROUND: Iowa citizens could use reasonable force, including killing someone, to prevent serious injury or death to themselves or someone else. Iowans would no longer have to first try to flee, under House File 7.
CHARTER SCHOOLS: Any accredited private or public school or private nonprofit could create a charter school that's exempt from almost all statutes and rules, and it would get state aid money, under House File 124.
DOVE HUNTING: Iowa would have a mourning dove hunting season, under Senate File 83. The doves have been protected in Iowa since 1918.
SNOWMOBILES: The annual fee for registering a snowmobile would increase from $15 to $30, under Senate File 192. The money would go into a trust fund for snowmobile programs.
— Jennifer Jacobs
Proposals targeted at limiting rights of same-sex couples, a ban on all abortions in Iowa, and changes to the way justices are selected for the Iowa Supreme Court met their death this week in a legislative deadline.
State lawmakers raced to beat today's so-called funnel, when most bills die if they have not gained committee approval.
Among the highlights in the last-minute scramble: Two fee increases advanced - one would increase snowmobile fees, the other cell- phone surcharges. Lawmakers also took two swings at scrapping the 5-cent bottle and can deposit, but both failed.
With this flurry of activity out of the way, lawmakers are settling in for a push for property tax relief, heavy lifting on job-creation ideas and an examination of dozens of ideas for tax breaks, which are exempt from the funnel.
House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said: "We said we'd focus on jobs and the economy, and we've done several things that do that."
Strategizing on property tax reform will begin in earnest next week, he said.
Asked about the funnel, Republican Gov. Terry Branstad said legislation he favors to reduce preschool funding and increase budget transparency and government openness made it out of committee.
"We're in good shape," he said.
Majority Democrats in the Iowa Senate said seven key bills to implement their plan to improve the state's economy moved ahead, including a community college job training program and rebates for solar and wind projects.
Both Republican and Democratic leaders have said they plan to focus primarily on economic development and jobs this session.
But plenty of social-issues bills have been debated. Some were discarded; others moved forward.
Several gun bills died, including a ban on any gun licensure, taxation or any measure that discourages gun ownership.
A proposal to significantly revise the state's collective bargaining law remains alive, and an overflow crowd is expected Monday for a public hearing.
Paulsen said he's excited about the bill, and asked for audio in the rotunda and nearby meeting rooms if the House chambers get too full.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, called the Republican bill extreme.
"Iowa will experience a little bit of Wisconsin next week," he said, referring to protests over a bill there to end collective bargaining rights for many public workers.
A small group of House Republicans who want to impeach the remaining four Iowa Supreme Court justices who authored the 2009 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage have not yet filed any articles of impeachment, but such action can happen at any time.
Several other proposals targeted at same-sex couples failed.
One dead bill would have allowed businesses to deny services or public accommodations based on religious beliefs. Another would have prohibited county recorders from granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples until a vote took place on a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage.
One resolution to adopt the amendment to ban same-sex marriage died, while another is stalled. Senate Democrats assigned to study the version that the Iowa House approved decided not to advance it, meaning it's effectively dead.
Of the 17 abortion bills Republicans proposed, only three had enough support to slide past the deadline.
One survivor would place restrictions on abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy. The bill seemed destined to die, but Paulsen reassigned it to the Government Oversight Committee, where bills are funnel-proof.
Another proposal says the state could give no more money to abortion providers, and providers would have to return more than $1.4 million received since July 1, 2010 - although none was used for abortions.
The third would exclude any insurance policy that provides coverage for abortion from the state's proposed health insurance
