A change of pace at the Statehouse in Des Moines
as majority republicans push an ambitious agenda.
An update with House Speaker Linda Upmeyer on
this edition of Iowa Press.
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For decades Iowa Press has brought you
politicians and newsmakers from across Iowa and
beyond.
Now celebrating more than 40 years of broadcast
excellence on statewide Iowa Public Television,
this is the Friday, February 3 edition of Iowa
Press.
Here is David Yepsen.
Yepsen: When one political party takes control of the
Governor's Office and both chambers of the Iowa
legislature it's called winning the political
trifecta.
Republicans won this trifecta last year and
have already tackled mid-year budget cuts while
rankling minority democrats on school aid
and Planned Parenthood.
House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, a Clear Lake
republican, joins us at the Iowa Press table to
talk about it all.
Speaker, welcome back to Iowa Press, good to have
you here.
Upmeyer: It is a pleasure to be here.
And welcome back to Iowa and Iowa Press for you as
well.
It's wonderful.
Yepsen: It's great to be home.
Joining us for the conversation are political
journalists James Lynch, reporter for the Gazette
in Cedar Rapids and Radio Iowa News Director Kay
Henderson.
Henderson: Let's start with that Planned
Parenthood defunding bill.
Every republican in the Iowa Senate voted for it.
When it reaches the floor in the Iowa House will
every republican there support it?
Upmeyer: Okay, we've passed this legislation,
very similar wording, in our budget bills through
the House in the past so I anticipate that as the
case.
Now, we've not had a full caucus and talked about it
so to parse words here, every single member, I
believe so but we have not caucused on it and we have
new members that have not had this discussion
before.
But it is something that the caucus supports,
something we support and so I'm excited to bring
that bill up.
Henderson: There was quite an outpouring of protest
over this bill when it came out of a subcommittee
and a committee in the Iowa Senate.
The Statehouse was jam-packed.
Is there political consequences for pursuing
this for republicans?
Upmeyer: Well, as I said, this is not a new topic to
certainly House republicans and Senate
republicans as well if they'd have had the
opportunity I think.
But for House republicans we've talked about this
before.
So, I really think we are doing exactly what our
supporters, the people at home, have asked us to do
and that is not add dollars to abortion
providers.
And so we want to make sure those dollars go out
and provide all kinds of women's health care all
over the state, but not going to abortion
providers.
So certainly that is what we've talked about in the
past, I think that's what we will move forward to
do.
Henderson: Will lines get longer?
Will it be a longer wait to get a reproductive
health exam at a traditional doctor's
office because of this?
Upmeyer: No, I don't believe so at all.
I don't believe so at all.
We want to make sure we have the support out there
that is available to women all over, but it already
is.
The places exist, we will add to that, we will make
sure resources are available, but I don't
believe that will add to long lines.
Lynch: President Trump has signaled that he might,
there might be some political consequences for
sanctuary cities that shelter immigrants.
And there is a bill in the Public Safety Committee
that would require local governments and
universities in Iowa to fully comply with federal
immigration laws and enforce those.
Is that going to get to the House floor?
Upmeyer: Well, what I believe is that
communities should follow the law, we should all
follow the law and that if we wish to change the law
for cities considering this it would be more
productive to actually work to change the law.
So that would be my advice to communities.
The bill itself will work its way through committee
and the majority leader will discuss it and we'll
bring it forward if the caucus wishes to do so.
I'm not sure what form that is going to take but
we'll take a look at it.
Lynch: Would that be a political gift to
democrats to bring that bill to the floor, give
them an opportunity to talk about how
mean-spirited republicans are?
Upmeyer: I don't believe so.
What we're talking about is safety and security,
right?
When someone who is in the country illegally is
picked up, what the federal government asks of
us is to hold that person to make sure that they
have not broken laws in other places and make sure
that's done and for possible deportation if in
fact they have and if they're here illegally.
So I think if we want to have a debate about
immigration then let's have a debate about
immigration.
But until that I think we should make sure that
we're protecting security and safety for Americans.
That's the federal government's job.
Yepsen: Madam Speaker, how do you do -- there's a
balancing act that republican leaders have to
do and I'm thinking, how do you keep your base
happy, the pro-life, the Second Amendment
conservatives who worked very hard for many years
to get you all elected, while at the same time not
going too far where you wind up with a situation
like in Kansas where the republicans cut taxes too
deeply, or in Indiana or in North Carolina where
they got sidetracked with gay marriage and
transgender bathrooms, and even lost the republican
Governor in North Carolina as a result of that?
How are you doing this balancing act that's in
your party?
Upmeyer: I think, first and foremost, what we try
and keep in mind is that we're here to serve to do
the best thing for all Iowans.
So absolutely there are people whose interests and
beliefs perhaps align more closely, but we want to do
the right thing for Iowans.
We learn things from other states, certainly we could
have told Kansas that if you cut taxes you need to
cut spending as well.
So there are some things that we all learn and act
on a little differently.
But I think as long as we're keeping in mind that
it's the right thing for Iowans as a whole I think
that puts us in the best position and we genuinely
believe that we're listening, we're having
good feedback, good discussions with people
all over the state as people go home on the
weekends and have those conversations, we're
getting input.
And remember, you've got 59 people from all over
the state.
So they have to agree first.
Yepsen: So what did you learn from other states?
Upmeyer: Well, certainly as you look at the way you
approach taxes, for instance, what works?
What doesn't?
What makes your state more competitive than another
state as you try and vie for the next great
business that's going to, excuse me, locate in the
Midwest or something?
We learn about that.
I think we learn too from other legislators in other
states how best to approach things like
health care, education.
When we're looking at reforming education Iowa
stepped forward with the Teacher Leadership Program
a few years ago.
That's something that we can take out to other
states and demonstrate what we learned from that.
As we move into Medicaid reform and modernization,
40 other states had done that, so we learn a lot
about, okay, the beginning can be bumpy but this can
work.
So we learn in so many different ways.
The other thing that happens is you have
legislators that are connected with each other
around the country and they learn individually as
well as collectively.
So I think we can bring things, it's why states I
think are viewed as the real laboratories in the
country and why I fight faithfully for more
opportunities to work on things at the state as
opposed to Washington.
Henderson: It's the view of business leaders that
it is best to have a uniform, statewide minimum
wage.
Will the House advance a bill to do that?
And if you do, will you at the same time raise the
state's minimum wage?
Upmeyer: As I said I think since before we started
session, that we will be taking up a bill on
pre-emption.
I believe that bill is nearly ready so that we
can have more uniformity.
Having a patchwork all over the state doesn't
work out very well.
And now we have also a patchwork within a county.
So Johnson County has not only got a county-wide
minimum wage but city minimum wages
individually.
It's just very difficult to have a patchwork system
so we're going to correct that.
And I don't hear members wanting to change the
minimum wage.
I think what we need to keep in mind is that
businesses can pay, employers can pay, anyone
can pay more than what is current minimum wage.
But I predict that there will be amendments that
cause that discussion certainly in debate.
Henderson: Well, what will pass then?
Is there a sentiment among enough republicans and
democrats to raise the wage in the House?
Upmeyer: I'm not hearing that right now, Kay, not
now anyway.
Lynch: There's a couple of transportation bills
making their way through the legislature, one
dealing with traffic cameras.
Will the House go along with banning traffic
cameras or regulate traffic cameras?
Upmeyer: We've done the traffic camera bill in the
past.
That, again, is working through committee.
So I don't know.
It's something we haven't caucused on how they would
like to handle that this year.
But it could very well come up.
Lynch: The House has passed a ban in the past.
Upmeyer: We have passed a ban in the past.
Lynch: Do you think the sentiment is the same this
year?
You have some new members.
Upmeyer: We do have new members and that's why
it's always hard to tell if people -- also, as time
goes by and we learn more, right, that people may
have changed positions.
But right now I think there's not a great deal
of support for having traffic cameras,
especially speed cameras.
So, we'll be listening to the caucus and see what
they'd like to do moving forward.
The committee will do its work first.
Lynch: There was a group at the Capitol this week
who talked about passing a law requiring people no
handheld phones in their cars, no texting while
driving, they would have to have a hands-free
phone.
How far will the legislature go in that
direction to improve safety on the highways?
Upmeyer: Well, I think that discussion is one
that certainly the Governor has talked about
a little bit in his State Address and has talked
about that he thinks we should take a look at
that.
Traffic accidents have been higher.
So I think we'll talk about that.
I don't know how far that will go, if we'll end up
with a primary texting law or we'll end up with
something hands-free.
But we are looking for more data, we want to
understand the situation.
Only 15 states have gone hands-free so far.
I think we have a great education, a great deal of
education to be done before we actually would
enact that.
But I think the discussion will begin, as you know,
some of these things take a little time to actually
work through when you're going and talking to the
public about how they would like us to approach
that, when members start learning more about the
ideas that they haven't thought about in the past
perhaps.
So, whether that gets a full discussion this year
as hands-free, I'm not sure yet.
Yepsen: Madam Speaker, is this one of these issues
that legislators don't want to do because they're
out there texting while driving and they're out
there talking on the phone?
Really, you hear debates, this always comes up, a
member says I'm out there, I got so many tickets.
Is this a problem?
Upmeyer: Certainly members are on their phones, I
have no doubt.
I think most people by now understand the danger of
texting and I hope most people aren't texting on
the roads.
But I do think people are on their telephones,
certainly they're returning calls, we drive
great distances.
I know I'm on my phone returning calls.
Can we do that hands-free?
Absolutely.
Is that still a distraction?
Perhaps.
But nonetheless, some of the things that we need to
do to make it hands free are almost equally a
distraction when you think of the complex systems we
have in our cars these days.
But I think moving forward, figuring out how
to be safer, how to do things safer and maybe the
conclusion at the end of the day, unless it's a
change.
But I think that's a conversation we're having
right now.
Henderson: Governor Ray signed a collective
bargaining law that has been in force ever since
his administration.
Why does it need to be changed?
Upmeyer: Well, the fact that it was Governor Ray
perhaps is the example that it has been 40 years.
Henderson: So what are the abuses you see?
Upmeyer: Well, it has been 40 years since we've taken
a thoughtful look.
If you think back to I think it was 2011 when we
actually did a pretty fairly comprehensive look
at collective bargaining and Chapter 20, made some
changes passed through the House, had a good debate
on that.
It went over to the Senate and of course did not
receive a favorable view in the Senate at that
time.
So now we have an opportunity to take
another look at it with a different receiving Senate
perhaps to look at it with us.
But I think over the years every time we have created
a new mandate, every time a contract is reviewed it
is one more finger on the scale that tilts it just a
little bit.
So what we'd like to do is to rebalance this a little
bit.
One of the places that we see the scale getting
tipped perhaps the most is in arbitration where you
have a situation where the arbitrator cannot consider
public sector wages, while we all compete for the
best and brightest minds in the state and in the
country, we can't consider what is being paid in the
private sector as part of that consideration.
The other thing that the arbitrator must consider
is that taxpayers or the entities have the ability
to tax.
So it sort of turns taxpayers into an ATM
machine and rebalancing that a little differently
I think would create some, a little more fairness in
the system.
Additionally, we think there are some great
opportunities, the Governor raised a good
point I think about offering opportunities for
health insurance, that if we set up a state pool as
an option, not a mandate, but an option, because I
don't think we'd support a mandate, we recognize
there are differences around the state in pools
where they are self-insured, that sort of
thing.
But if you have an option that could also be an
opportunity where you could save some dollars
that could be then reinvested back into the
city, county, school, state, whichever entity it
is.
So there are just some opportunities and we would
like to have a discussion about that.
Henderson: So how far are you going to go?
Are you going to tell police officers, for
example, they can't negotiate about how much
the department pays in terms of Kevlar vests and
weaponry?
Upmeyer: Well, I think we're very sensitive to
public safety and their needs and we'll continue
to look at that.
Representative Deyoe has been working very
diligently on this ever since I named him Labor
Chair and I think he has been talking to people and
I think he's very close to having a bill ready that
we can all take a look at.
Lynch: The Des Moines Register has been
reporting on health insurance that lawmakers
are enjoying for as little as $20 a month premium.
How did this happen?
When union employees are paying much more for their
personal coverage and family coverage, how is it
that lawmakers are paying only $20 a month for
health care coverage?
And what are you going to do about this?
Upmeyer: Well, actually I can't tell you how it
actually started because it was before my time that
it started.
But I can tell you what I know over especially the
last six years.
We noticed the same thing, but actually we were
paying precisely the same thing as union members six
years ago and we wrote bills and in fact let me
even go back before that because it was when we
were in the minority, we observed that we were
paying a different level of contribution than the
private sector, it just didn't match up very well.
There was a real divergence of the way
health insurance was going.
We offered amendments at that time because our
bills weren't being looked at very well, so we
offered amendments to actually raise that.
We offered different numbers, genuinely in the
hope that we would have something that might be
attractive to those that were in leadership and
moving it forward.
They were rejected.
Then when we came in, in '11, we offered a bill
that would change that -- 20% I believe is the
number we used.
Yepsen: What are you going to do about it now?
Upmeyer: Now that we have a Senate that will take it
up we absolutely will make those changes because we
sent that bill, as you might recall, over to the
Senate to increase to a 20% contribution, which
would have exceeded what was being paid by others,
but nonetheless, it was rejected in the Senate.
So, Senator Gronstal did not want to run that bill.
Lynch: Should lawmakers pay the difference, the
benefit they've been getting over the past few
years, should they make that up?
Upmeyer: Well, you're suggesting that the
benefit was not in compliance with what was
said.
We were following the law.
What we were trying to do is change the law.
So I guess I don't understand exactly what
they would be making up.
Yepsen: Madam Speaker, why do legislators even need
health insurance from the state?
Why do legislators get pension?
We talk about a citizen legislature.
Every citizen out there looks at those kind of
discount rates that you folks are paying for
insurance and the pensions that members get and they
say the legislature is out of touch.
Why in this day and age does the Iowa legislature
need to get health insurance and pension
benefits from the state?
Upmeyer: Well, I think there are, again, that is
something that precedes, predates my time in the
legislature.
But that has been something that has always
been there.
We're happy to take a look at this.
But we do have a citizen legislature, absolutely we
have a citizen legislature.
But it also is not only a four month a year
legislature.
So many legislators have been forced to over a
period of time no longer work in a regular job that
is a full-time job at home because they're working
part-time, full-time, citizen legislature,
however you want to describe it, as a
legislator because we continue our work all
through the year and part-time at home.
So it has been an option that has been available.
Henderson: Before you were a legislator you were a
full-time nurse.
How do you feel about legislation that would
give Iowans another option to opt out of having their
children vaccinated against dangerous diseases
like Measles and Polio?
Upmeyer: I understand people's concerns because
there are adverse reactions to
immunizations.
We know that every medication has a risk.
But nonetheless, I'm supportive of
immunizations.
We need to have an immunized population.
I think the bill did not move forward in the House.
I think Representative Heaton is not moving that
bill forward.
So while I understand people's concerns on one
hand, on the other hand if we do not vaccinate with
regularity we also have a situation where we have
super strains and you probably don't want me
going into that, but nonetheless, immunizations
have saved lives all over the United States when
we've been able to eradicate disease and I
don't think we want to back up from that.
Lynch: Medical cannabis is another health related
issue that keeps coming up and more than half the
states allow some use of medical cannabis.
You have indicated you would prefer direction
from the federal government.
But how long can Iowans wait for the federal
government to make some decision on medical
cannabis?
Upmeyer: I think now we have the perfect time when
we can expect clarification.
I think we should at least ask for clarification.
We have a different Attorney General.
We have a different President.
So I'm not sure if the same precedents will be in
place.
So once again, those are, no matter what approach we
take, that is actually breaking the law and I'd
prefer not to break it but instead please change it
so we can do what we need to do or make a decision.
So that would be step one.
But that doesn't preclude us from doing something if
we choose to if we don't get a signal that
something is changing.
Henderson: 150,000 Iowans don't have a driver's
license.
How will you provide them with an identification if
indeed you do pass a voter verification bill?
Upmeyer: Secretary of State has indicated that
his office would be responsible for making
sure IDs are available.
Currently the driver's license state, the
Department of Transportation, makes IDs
available for people with or without a driver's
license.
You can go in and get an ID.
But even more seamlessly the Secretary of State
would be doing so as well.
Lynch: School funding is going to come up this
week.
There is a public hearing and then the House is
likely to take up the 1.11% increase in school
aid.
Is that realistic?
Is that realistic for school districts, that
level of funding?
Upmeyer: Well, we've had conversations with
superintendents ever since after the elections
especially and in the beginning of the year and
certainly we have conversations about
various amounts of money and what would be most
helpful.
But one of the things we did hear was setting it
within the first 30 days is immensely helpful to
them, being able to predict a number that they
can count on.
If you recall, we held them harmless in the
deappropriation bill for that very reason.
It's something they need to be able to count on.
We work very hard to do that.
Additionally, we had long conversations about the
kind of flexibility that would be helpful to them.
We've talked about examples of that but very
specifically one of the superintendents said he
has filed a report this year, that he has filed
for several years, and suddenly this year it
popped back in for whatever reason.
They're spending a ridiculous amount of time
trying to make that report pass muster I guess with
the Department of Education.
The same report is being filed at the federal level
in a slightly different variation, creating some
opportunities to push those decisions back to
the local school boards and filing reports in one
place that will work for both, all those kinds of
things create the flexibility to create
savings in time and function for them as well.
A final thing and then I'll stop is the
inequities.
We want to address those too.
So at the end of the day I think we do have a package
that they're very interested in.
Yepsen: We've got about a minute left.
Tax cuts.
The Governor isn't talking about tax cuts, yet some
of your members are.
Are you going to be able to afford tax cuts?
Or will you get yourself in a jam like Kansas did?
Upmeyer: I can't imagine a year that republicans
don't come in and look at how we might put more
money back into taxpayer pockets.
Yepsen: How do you afford it?
Upmeyer: Well, I think the question is right now what
is possible and what is not?
Every year we balance that with the reality of our
revenue, the reality of our economy and we have
that discussion inside that context.
So we won't quit having the discussion but I think
right now we're looking at opportunities for things
that will make it simpler, fairer and make Iowa more
competitive in the country.
So those are the things we'll focus on.
But we'll always do that in context of what we have
for available revenue.
Henderson: If there is a GOP primary in 2018 for
Governor will you support Kim Reynolds?
Upmeyer: I tell you what, I think Kim Reynolds is
going to be a great Governor.
I can hardly wait to serve with her.
And I will be supporting her as she makes this
transition.
It's going to be wonderful.
Yepsen: Madam Speaker, we're out of time.
Thank you for being with us.
We've got a lot more issues to discuss.
We'll have you back to do that another day.
Upmeyer: Thank you.
Thank you.
Yepsen: Thanks for being with us today.
Upmeyer: Oh, it has been a pleasure.
Yepsen: And we'll return with another edition of
Iowa Press next week with Iowa Political Party
Chairs Jeff Kaufmann and Derek Eadon.
So join us for Iowa Press at our regular times, 7:30
Friday night and noon on Sunday.
For all of us here at Iowa Public Television, I'm
David Yepsen.
Thanks for joining us.
♪♪
Funding for Iowa Press was provided by
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Iowa Community Foundations, an initiative
of the Iowa Council of Foundations, connecting
donors to the causes and communities they care
about for good, for Iowa, for ever.
Details at iowacommunityfoundations.org.
The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the
public's partner in building Iowa's highway,
bridge and municipal utility infrastructure.
I'm a dad.
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No matter who you are there is an Iowa banker
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essential to fulfilling the promise of a connected
Iowa.
ICN's Broadband Matters campaign showcases the
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of Iowa.
Information is available at broadbandmatters.com.
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