John,

At 4:23 am on Saturday morning, the legislative session finally ended.

This was a long and hard legislative session. And if you're like me and believe elected officials should listen to the voters they represent, then this was not your session.

There is a long list of controversial bills that became laws this year and most share one common thread: bipartisan opposition, highlighted by support from only the most extreme Republicans.

By far, the biggest fight this year was over AEAs, the area education agencies. I have discussed AEA's with thousands of Iowans — Democrats, Independents and Republicans — and none have asked for or wanted this.

The whole process was chaotic and unnecessary.

Even before the budgets passed, 341 AEA employees had resigned.

Ultimately, in the Education Budget bill, $10 million was removed from the AEAs and given to the Department of Education. And in the Standings Bill, Republicans cut another $32.5 million from the AEAs. By the end of this year's legislative session, AEAs had lost over $70 million from last year.

This is incredibly disrespectful to the special education professionals who serve our communities. But ultimately, this will hurt kids with special educational needs who — just like me as a kid — rely on special education services to be successful in school.

Going into this legislative session, I had a list of the things I heard from constituents . Stuff like:

Making sure we have good public education;

Water quality;

Nursing home care;

Mental health care;

Medicaid deficiencies (especially since the state privatized it); and

The fact that Iowa has the fastest growing cancer rate in the nation.

But Republicans continue to stonewall all of these problems . And only allowed progress on one issue, allowing for a long overdue pay increase for teachers.

But the disappointments continued to grow as the session went on. Another big disappointment was the Pharmaceutical Benefit Manager (or PBM) Bill. It passed out of the House but the Senate refused to vote on it.

Drake University conducted a study showing that in the next 12 months, around 40% of independent pharmacies will close. This bill was a lifeline for small businesses across our state! The Senate never brought the bill to the floor for a vote, it will be interesting to see how much the Senate Republicans will get in donations from the PBMs to kill the bill.

What hurts the most, is that the Governor and Republican leadership have prioritized national-Republican and out-of-state special-interests agendas over Iowans.

It's an incredible honor to serve in the Iowa House and to represent Sioux City. However, the past two sessions have been incredibly disappointing. The disappointment goes far beyond Democrats versus Republicans, it's that the Governor and her extremist allies are refusing to fight for hard-working families in our state.

In order to get this state on the right track, we need two things: 1) Republicans who are willing to stand up to their own leadership and 2) More democrats. I am doing everything I can to fight for Iowans, but I need your help. Will you chip in today and help us elect more Democrats this year? [[link removed]]

That's a wrap from desk 57.

Stand Tall for All,

J.D.

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