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While more than 3,000 members of the Iowa National Guard make final preparations for deployment to Afghanistan later this year, Iowa lawmakers helped ease their transitions and deployments with the passage of 10 bills recommended by the U.S. Department of Defense. Gov. Chet Culver made it official Tuesday when he signed in the final seven bills, four of which were signed during a ceremony in Sioux City.
Gov. Chet Culver
“With my signature today, Iowa becomes the first state in the country to take action on all 10 the priorities,” Gov. Culver said in a release. “From unemployment to housing, to family services, and legal protections for service members, these common-sense proposals are becoming law because Iowans will always support those who defend our freedoms.”
When the Iowa Legislature convened in January, Culver made it clear that he wanted lawmakers to address the 10 priority issues identified by the Department of Defense before this year’s historic deployment to Afghanistan, which will be the largest call-up of a single unit for an overseas deployment since World War II.
“By enacting these measures, we are keeping our promise to all who are serving and have served,” Culver said. “To our veterans, I say a heart-felt thanks for your legacy of service in the name of freedom here in America and abroad. To the brave men and women serving today, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan – you embody Iowa’s spirit of service. These bills are a symbol of the gratitude we all have for our brave service members and their families.”
Although most of the bills passed through the Iowa General Assembly with relative ease and unanimous bipartisan support, there were a few speed bumps along the way.
House File 2110, a bill that will expand unemployment benefits for spouses who are forced to leave their jobs when service members receive a military reassignment or deployment,ran into a partisan roadblock when it was initially brought up for debate on the House floor in January.
Opponents of the bill argued that the state’s unemployment trust fund was already in a downward spiral and expanding these costs would contribute higher costs to all businesses. The bill’s supporters, however, argued that the initiative would only affect a small population and would not trigger a tax-rate change for businesses.
State Rep. McKinley Bailey, D-Webster City, a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee who served in the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, was surprised by the tone established during the debate by Republican opponents of the bill. “This bill has little effect in Iowa, since we don’t have any military bases, which is why the visceral opposition to this bill is unfounded,” Bailey told The Iowa Independent during a phone interview in February.
The bill eventually passed in the House along party lines, 56-44, and moved on to the Senate where it passed with the help of three Republicans.
The only other measure that drew opposition on either side was HF 2197, a bill that will pave the way for veterans to seek holiday time off on Veterans Day. Some lawmakers were concerned the bill could present an economic hardship to smaller businesses.
“My concern is in our effort to try to do something in the benefit for veterans there are some unintended consequences here we need to think about,” state Rep. Ralph Watts, R-Adel, told The Des Moines Register.
The bill went on to pass in the House 97-2 and passed along party lines in the Senate (except three Republicans who voted “yes”). With Culver’s signature, the new law became the first bill of its kind in the nation.
Culver signed the following four bills at the Sioux City ceremony on Tuesday:
Senate File 2226 relates to parents’ rights for child custody when the parent is deployed, to ensure due process rights are protected while parents are deployed, and also allows service members to designate a relative of the child to exercise visitation rights in place of the service member. This bill addresses one of the Department of Defense recommendations.
Senate File 2274 provides education-related benefits to military spouses, including a new protection for spouses who must withdraw from school because of a family deployment, the development of a study relating to the educational needs of veterans and their dependent children, and the creation of a work group to enhance foreign language proficiency. This bill addresses two of the Department of Defense recommendations.
Senate File 2297 opens up state and local government facilities for military events, provides for additional administrative protection in the event of the death of a service member, addresses “non-professional” firearms permits by allowing the permit to be valid up to 90 days after a deployment, and prohibits utilities from disconnecting service to families while a family member is deployed. This bill addresses one of the Department of Defense recommendations.
Senate File 2318 establishes programs to inform state employees who are military members of their rights and benefits while deployed. Among other benefits, it provides for a study to determine how military training can substitute for professional licensing requirements, and it states that payday lenders must obey strict limits on interest rates when lending to military personnel. This bill addresses three of the Department of Defense recommendations.
Culver signed the following three bills Tuesday:
House File 2414 adds the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary to the list of military organizations or veterans groups that are allowed to perform honor guard service on public property.
House File 2197 directs employers to allow holiday time off for veterans on Veterans Day.
House File 2454 directs the Department of Administrative Services to develop programs to inform, train, and hire qualified disabled veterans for job opportunities in state government, including a noncompetitive hiring program for disabled veterans who successfully completed a federal non-pay work experience program.
Culver signed two other bills into law earlier this year:
House File 755 expands eligibility under the Injured Veterans Grant Program to include any veteran who has suffered an injury in the line of duty requiring at least 30 consecutive days of hospitalization at a military hospital but who wasn’t evacuated from the operational theater in which the veteran was injured.
House File 2137 is a recommendation by the Military Division of the Department of Public Defense concerning state military service and the Iowa Code of Military Justice (ICMJ). It states that the Adjutant General, a Deputy Adjutant General and the State Quartermaster are not considered state employees while performing state military service except for purposes of the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System and state employee health, dental and other benefit plans. It strengthens punitive provisions relating to wrongful use, possession, distribution or manufacture of certain controlled substances to put Iowa in line with the federal Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
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