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Iowa Legislature starts with an anti-COVID vaccine mandate protest

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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The Iowa Legislature kicks off its 2022 session at 10 a.m. Monday, bringing state lawmakers back to the Capitol just a few months after they finalized Iowa's new redistricting maps during a pair of special sessions last fall.

The first day back will be marked by speeches from legislative leaders and a rally by an anti-vaccine mandate group as Iowa's COVID-19 numbers rise thanks to the Omicron variant.

House, Senate gavel into session
10:05 a.m. Speaker Pat Grassley has gaveled in the Iowa House for the 2022 legislative session.

10:07 a.m. The Iowa Senate has gaveled in to begin the 2022 session. What to expect this morning: The Iowa Senate will swear in a new member, Republican Dave Rowley of Spirit Lake, who won a special election in December. Party leaders will also give speeches from the floor to preview their agenda and set the stage for the coming days.


Anti-vaccine mandate protests greets lawmakers at sessions' start​

9:30 a.m. Several dozen Iowans rang in the session by protesting vaccine mandates while gathered under the Capitol rotunda, continuing to pressure state lawmakers to fight COVID-19 vaccine requirements.

The rally was similar, though smaller, to other rallies that groups held last year during the beginning of the session and the two special sessions in the fall.


Rep. Jon Jacobsen, R-Council Bluffs, spoke to the crowd and outlined legislation he is proposing that would widely ban businesses from asking about or maintaining records of a person's medical treatment status, including vaccinations.

"Our state motto is 'Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.' Our motto is not 'our lobby ties we prize and our rights we will bargain,'" he said, drawing applause. One member of the crowd beat a snare drum in agreement.

The Republican bill would prohibit businesses from hiring or firing someone based on their vaccination status and would additionally ban denying goods and services, providing incentives or discriminating based on that status. It would also widely prohibit mask requirements, its authors said.

How much support the bill has remains unclear. Republican leaders have said they want to wait on pending U.S. Supreme Court cases against the Biden administration's federal vaccine-or-testing mandates. Oral arguments were Friday.

The crowd cheered when Jacobsen said he appreciated Iowa Labor Commissioner Rod Roberts for declining to enforce the Biden administration's vaccine-or-testing requirement for large employers. Roberts sent notice to the federal government Friday night that the state would not adopt or enforce it, saying that Iowa's existing standards are "at least as effective" as the federal standard, although he did not elaborate on how.

Iowa is among 21 states that have an individual state plan for workplace safety, which gives the state the option of writing its own workplace rules for public and private sector workers. But those rules can’t be weaker than what the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires.

U.S. Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda said in a statement Saturday that "we fully expect" states with their own workplace safety and health rules to comply with the vaccine mandate. If a state fails to adopt an emergency standard within 30 days, OSHA would have the authority to step in and enforce the federal standard.

Reynolds at pre-session GOP breakfast has fighting words for Biden administration​


8:30 a.m. Gov. Kim Reynolds, speaking the Iowa GOP’s legislative breakfast Monday, emphasized how she’s fighting back against the Biden administration’s pandemic mitigation policies, like vaccine mandates.

“We show Iowans and the country the stark contrast between Republican leadership and the failed policies of the Biden administration and Democrats,” she said.

During her speech, Reynolds repeated the message that “we proved that an effective pandemic response doesn’t have to come a the cost of our most basic civil liberties.”

The breakfast is the party's big pre-legislative session fundraiser. Once the legislature gavels in, certain limitations on political donations kick in.

Reynolds, who is expected to seek reelection this year, also mentioned other Republican priorities like getting students back in classrooms, cutting taxes, supporting law enforcement and changing Iowa’s election laws.

Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann also led the Iowa GOP in a moment of silence Monday morning for the late Rep. John Landon, an Ankeny Republican who died last year at 71.

“I think this is the first time that I’ve stood up here that I have not looked out and seen John Landon,” Kaufmann said at the breakfast. “And we just want he and his family and his wonderful partner, Marvis, to know that we are thinking about John ... he made a difference.”

Landon was first elected in 2012. His wife, Marvis Landon, is running for the Iowa House this year.

 
I've said it many times. How long until cases of polio start popping up in places like Iowa?
 
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