Following the first deadline of the 2026 Iowa Legislative Session, one lawmaker goes over some bills he was running through the process.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green says the first funnel week is the initial step to narrow down legislation so that lawmakers can focus more attention on the bills that are made through a committee in one of the chambers. He states two education bills that he introduced and got through the committee are what he claimed to be “non-controversial.” The first bill helps high schools with students that are concurrently enrolled in college classes that are paid for by the school district, but that the class could be taught on their campus instead of traveling.

“They want to have that authority to keep a student in their school so it kind of saves them on that expense. In other cases, they might know that the student isn’t ready for a college class. And so, they want to make sure that the authority is clear that if a student isn’t ready that the superintendent could prevent that student from taking a college class.” 

Green points out the other education bill would allow high schools to charge students the cost of taking a dual-enrolled course with a college, if that student fails the class. 

Green explains a bill that didn’t survive the first funnel week related to giving married couples other options than no-fault divorce that is currently allowed by law. He clarifies that the bill would give additional options for those looking to dissolve a marriage, other than through claiming no-fault. 

“I believe that there’s a segment of our society that does not want to sign prenuptial agreements. I mean, you think about from a devout Christian, a couple that are about ready to stand before God and their community and say, ‘Til death do us part,’ but because of our loose divorce laws or whatever, they feel they have to do a prenuptial agreement. And it is just a violation of their conscious.” 

Green quickly found out that more lawmakers supported getting rid of common law marriages, but leadership determined that since going that new route would be entirely different, a strike-through amendment with his no-fault divorce bill wouldn’t be allowed. He adds that there are 33 other states that provide options other than no-fault for divorces.