jesse-green

Now that this year’s Iowa legislative session has ended, lawmakers are continuing to look back at how the session went overall.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green says his first session as a new senator was a statement year for the Republican party. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio they passed two state constitutional amendments, including aligning language with the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the life amendment, where an abortion is not a guaranteed right for women. He notes the second amendment will be on the November 2022 ballot, while the life amendment needs to pass the next general assembly before it can be placed on the ballot. 

Green says other marque bills that were passed included permitless to carry a firearm, banning COVID-19 passports in certain situations, as well as election reform and several educational bills, such as expanding charter schools and requiring that schools provide an in-person learning option.

“Our kids deserve that option and we were starting to fall behind with their potential future and educational success if we didn’t act as a legislature. We made a statement that we are not going to allow fear to punish our children by forcing them to wear a mask when they do not want to and when science doesn’t necessarily clearly back it. I think it’s clear that as a legislature, if science doesn’t necessarily prove it, that we need to always lean on the side of freedom.”

Green says additional “statement” bills were the Back the Blue Bill with stiffer penalties for those who protest illegally and heightened immunity for law enforcement in those situations, as well as gaining more access to the beginning farmer’s credit. Green adds, this past legislative session was the largest the Republican trifecta since 1973.