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Iowa Catholic Conference update, Feb. 2, 2025

Writer's picture: Iowa Catholic ConferenceIowa Catholic Conference

Catching up on last week’s activity at the State Capitol:

 

HF 62 passed a subcommittee and is eligible to be considered by the House Judiciary Committee. The bill requires age verification for adult websites. Nineteen states have passed similar legislation.

 

The Church is opposed to obscene material because it does grave injury to the human dignity of its participants. We believe this policy could protect children by simplifying things for parents, some of whom are unaware that filtering options even exist on their devices or do not have the technical know-how to activate them. This bill puts more of the obligation for protection on the provider.

                         

There was a subcommittee hearing last week for SF 126, which would allow additional sentencing options for 18- or 19-year-olds. Currently in Iowa, any adult who commits a Class A felony such as first-degree murder is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Under this bill, for example, an 18- or 19-year-old who commits a terrible crime could receive a life sentence with the possibility of parole after serving a minimum term of confinement as determined by the court.

 

Subcommittees at the Iowa Legislature almost always have three members. SF 126 passed the subcommittee with one Republican vote and one Democratic vote. One Republican voted against. The ICC supports the bill as the Church teaches there should be consideration for reforming and restoring offenders to society, not only on punishment, while the harm caused by the person should be repaired to the extent possible.

 

The House Judiciary Committee removed HSB 15 (human smuggling) from its debate calendar on Thursday to continue work on an amendment. We will see if it comes up in committee next week.

 

The ICC supports SSB 1028, which requires schools to present a video to students that shows prenatal human development throughout every stage of pregnancy. The bill passed the Senate Education Committee. We think this will help students understand the beauty of a baby’s early days and hopefully that will extend to all people.

 

HF 189 passed the House Education Committee with the backing of the ICC. It provides that public schools accept nonpublic school students for an activity if the nonpublic school does not offer the activity.

 

Thanks to Father Jason Lee, parochial vicar of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart in Ankeny, who provided the closing prayer for the Prayer for Life event at the State Capitol last week.  Gov. Reynolds spoke at that event and later visited Holy Family School in Des Moines for Catholic Schools Week.

 

Federal updates

 

A federal circuit court has continued to block enforcement of SF 2340, the “illegal reentry” Iowa law passed last year that would have allowed state officials to prosecute an individual for state immigration crimes, even if that person’s application for immigration relief was pending before federal authorities or they have received federal authorization to be present.

 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued the following statement on its long-time partnership with the federal government to serve refugees:

 

“Faithful to the teaching of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church has a long history of serving refugees. In 1980, the bishops of the United States began partnering with the federal government to carry out this service when Congress created the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). Every person resettled through USRAP is vetted and approved for the program by the federal government while outside of the United States. In our agreements with the government, the USCCB receives funds to do this work; however, these funds are not sufficient to cover the entire cost of these programs. Nonetheless, this remains a work of mercy and ministry of the Church.”

 

The USCCB also applauded an executive order which reverses several policies of the prior Administration that promoted and facilitated abortion with taxpayer resources. The memorandum restores and expands the Mexico City Policy, which prevents taxpayer resources from going to certain organizations that perform or promote abortion overseas, and enforces the Hyde Amendment that prohibits federal taxpayer funding for abortion.

 

And finally,

 

  • Thanks for those of you who participated in Thursday’s webinar on legislative matters. We’ll do it again.

  • In a special election, Mike Zimmer (D-Dewitt) was chosen state senator for District 35 following Chris Cournoyer’s appointment as lieutenant governor.

  • We extend our prayers and condolences to the family of state Rep. Martin Graber (R-Fort Madison) who died last week. He was the chair of the Federal and Other Funds Subcommittee.

 

 

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