Capitol Comments by Rep. Hanson

State Rep. Curt Hanson, represents Iowa House District 82, which includes most of Jefferson County and Davis and Van Buren counties, in the state Legislature.

Raw milk was again the topic of a hearing Monday.

The two sides of the issue center on personal freedom and public health. The issue becomes personal when we learn of the risks to our children or grandchildren, attending a child care center. The risk of death or disability is higher if others at the center carry pathogens responsible for the development of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome or Guillain-Barre Syndrome. These pathogens are sometimes found in raw milk. Mortality rates for HUS are as high as 5 percent and an additional 5 percent of patients are permanently damaged. Most of the affected patients are children under the age of 5 years.

Much of the outdated research and research done in Europe was called to question by those speaking at the hearing.

Today?s farms are not the farms of our grandparents and Iowa farms cannot be compared to farms in Europe. However, there has been recent research conducted in nearby Keokuk County. Carried out over a 20-year period, the research done in Keokuk County reported increased rates of respiratory symptoms of rural residents, not lower rates as reported by some studies. The study also questions the overall safety of raw milk.

The Natural Resources Committee heard a proposal to aid in the recovery of Iowa pheasant and quail populations presented by Matt O?Connor of Pheasants Forever. Pheasant hunting was once a very popular Iowa sport and an economic boost to the businesses serving the needs of hunters. The demise of the Iowa pheasant population may be due to a combination of habitat loss and extreme weather. Many thought CRP land was a habitat that would benefit pheasants. Research now reports the thatch near the ground is too thick and will not support pheasants, because upland birds like to nest in regrowth. He reported that even field mice have abandoned this habitat.

The presentation included a funding request of $6.65 million which includes initiatives to buffer many streams. Buffering streams can directly affect the nutrient reduction in Iowa and reduce erosion. Improving water quality while improving wildlife habitat is certainly a goal many Iowans would support.

Dan Nickey, of the Iowa Food Waste Reduction Center, reported to the Natural Resource Committee the need to reduce the amount of food waste filling our landfills. In the last 13 years, our landfills have experienced a 62 percent increase in food waste.

Forty percent of the food produced in the United States is not consumed. Most of this food is considered waste because it is stamped with an expiration date, which is usually set by the company and not by the law. Only a small portion of food waste sent to landfills is ?plate scrapings.?

As our landfills struggle with what to do with the huge amount of waste, including food waste, we learned that 19 percent of Iowa children are food insecure. Nineteen percent of Iowa children do not know when their next meal is coming!

Many of our local food pantries have found there are ever-increasing demands for their services. Reducing food waste is the first objective. Composting our food waste is also an important method in the reduction of the waste impacting our landfills.

In the Agriculture Committee, manure application education requirements were voted upon. The committee passed a bill lowering the yearly education standards from three hours to two hours. I did not favor the bill and will offer an amendment that will require the present three hours of education for new applicants and two hours of training for those who wish to renew their application licenses.

The funding of education was discussed in subcommittee and the Education Committee this week. Rural schools face an increasing demand in funding the transportation costs which are rising in addition to the costs of the actual education of students. In a bill discussed in subcommittee, local school districts with transportation costs 100 percent above the state average could seek additional funding from local taxpayers. It remains to be seen if this concept moves forward.

Current state law requires the State Legislature to set school funding within 30 days of the presentation of the Governor?s budget. Feb. 13 marked the date schools were to receive the budget numbers they need to plan for the future. The House majority party does not wish to set a budget number for Iowa schools at this time. Not allowing locally elected school boards time to plan their budgets and to operate efficiently is not responsible.

The House majority party refused to set school district allowable growth for the coming year. I favor following the law and letting our local elected officials plan in a manner that only they have the knowledge and capability to accomplish.

E-cigarettes were another topic this week. Even though the bill outlaws the sale of e-cigarettes to minors it falls short of what many had hoped for. In the end I voted for the bill as I felt a poor bill is better than no bill. I hope we will have a chance to revisit this issue when the Senate acts upon it.

For many, trust in the hope for bipartisan cooperation was critically damaged when Representative T. Olson?s amendment was ruled non-germane. The amendment, in the opinion of many, would have improved the e-cigarette bill we passed. The non-germane ruling centered on the difference between calling these devices a ?vapor device? verses an ?electronic smoking device.? The ruling was appealed by the body and was defeated along party lines. Not discussing the improvement of a bill on such a narrow definition is not in the tradition of the Iowa Legislature.

A similar ruling prevented the discussion of another amendment addressing the definition of ?school property? that would include school buses in the ban of e-cigarettes.

The House passed a bill that would limit telemedicine in the termination of early term pregnancies. This bill affects rural Iowans and would have little impact in urban areas. The bill is not expected to be debated in the Senate.

Iowa industry now has openings for high quality jobs requiring complex training. We passed out of subcommittee a bill that will allow the data collected from colleges to help veterans fill these positions.

On a bi-partisan 41-8 vote, the Iowa Senate approved a $2 million emergency bill to help low-income Iowans keep their homes warm this winter.

Hanson serves on the House Agriculture and Education, Natural Resources committees, as well as the Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

Contact Hanson anytime by email at curt.hanson@legis.iowa.gov or by phone at 641-919-2314