Governor Kim Reynolds says she’s really close to a decision on a bill that would limit carbon pipeline developers ability to use eminent domain to seize land along the pipeline route.
Governor Reynolds has until Saturday to sign or veto all the bills that cleared the 2025 Iowa legislature. On Friday, the governor’s office announced Reynolds had signed two dozen bills. She approved the bill to require some able-bodied adults who get insurance through the government’s Medicaid program to work at least 80 hours a month.
It would apply to Iowans with incomes up to 136 percent of the poverty level under an expansion of Medicaid approved a decade ago — if the federal government grants Iowa a waiver to enforce the policy. Reynolds says government programs should foster a culture of work and adults who can work should work.
Among the other bills the governor signed on Friday is a policy that requires public schools to let private school students who live in the district participate in extracurricular activities, like sports. Along that line, another bill will go into effect for the next school year requires public, private and charter schools to start teaching about fetal development in the fifth grade, and show a students video that depicts the humanity of the unborn child.
Reynolds also signed a bill that will impose higher penalties for violations of open meetings and open records law. That bill was sponsored by a Bettendorf lawmaker concerned about actions in the City of Davenport after the collapse of an apartment building
