Coming up on K C eight news. Close up. The 2023 Iowa legislative session officially over what lawmakers accomplished over the last four months and the session was full of controversial bills, some of which became law. What Republicans and Democrats both say is they leave the State House and Iowa Democrats have unveiled their mail in caucus plan for 2024. The bill that Republicans passed to try and stop it. This is Iowa's news leader. This is K C C I eight news close up and *** good Sunday morning to you. Welcome to close up. I'm chief investigative reporter James Stratton and I'm chief political reporter Amanda Rooker. Thanks for joining us. The 2023 legislative session wrapped up on Thursday after tackling *** number of controversial issues and those included passing *** private school scholarship program using state funds to help some Iowans pay for private school tuition bans on teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity in banning doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or hormones to transgender kids and passing property tax reform that is expected to provide $100 million in relief to Iowans. I spoke with Republican Speaker of the House Pat Grassley, right after lawmakers gaveled out for the year, we spoke about what he sees as his biggest accomplishments and the bills that did not make it across the finish line. Now that *** session is officially over. How are you feeling about the session? And what do you feel? What do you see as the biggest accomplishments you got done this year? Yeah. And I think, well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. And I think when we came in early on in the session, we laid out *** list of 13 priorities of those eight of them were able to make them to the governor's desk. So we're pretty proud of where we ended up the accomplishments that we were able to make house file. One obviously was property tax reform. We just had, you know, we've come from the bill signing now and it showed we brought together listening to Iowans and responding to probably what I would say was their number one concern that we were hearing coming into this session. Obviously, it feels like forever ago, but we were able to make, we will be able to pass *** very strong school choice bill early in session that I think will give *** lot of opportunities to families all across the state to make sure it creates competition. But also provide opportunities for folks that would want to pick *** non traditional route like the public school system. So I think we've really come in and accomplished *** lot of the goals that we tried to lay out to do early in session. You came into the session coming off of the campaign trail. *** lot of lawmakers spent time talking to constituents. What were those things that you heard on the trail? And do you feel like you delivered on those promises? Yeah, leading up to session. I think that's why not every year we come in and lay out *** list of priority bills the way we did this year. And we purposely did that because we wanted to send *** message to after significant increases in our majority last election, we wanted to show that we were delivering on those promises. So like I said, that's why house file one was property taxes and trying to make sure that we provide certainty and relief. And I think it's just the first step for us down the path of *** global conversation around tax policy, whether it's income property tax. Like I said, the school, school choice was *** big coming into this session. But also uh there were some other issues that we were looking at when it came to workforce. For example, we created *** workforce grant program for high demand fields to the region's universities. We already have something like that for the community colleges and now we're going to implement something similar um at our regions, institutions. So, you know, we, I'd say there was *** lot of diversity in the issues that we had before us in this session, there were, there was *** lot of focus on education reform, but in that, there was also *** lot of bills that dealt with LGBT Q topics. Uh There are lots of families with LGBT Q kids who say they feel targeted by that legislation. What do you say to those families? Well, the first thing that I would say is uh the issues that we, that we brought up this session were *** lot of issues that have been brought to us by Iowans. If you look, for example, we had in one of our bills that you can't keep information from parents. You have to, if there's any change in gender or any of those kinds of things that are happening at the school system, we had *** bill that would try to address to make sure that those policies that exist in certain school districts, they're not appropriate. They need to be, that's *** conversation between *** family and their child, not just something that should be isolated within the school district. So *** bill like that, for example, was in response to *** policy that was taking place across the state, making sure that there was *** lot of buzzwords being thrown around like book banning and other things. This legislative session, the house took the lead on saying we're not going to go in and try to say that the legislature should say which books are and aren't appropriate and just go through *** list of them. What we decided to do is define what age appropriate material was. And if you see some of the levels of nearly pornographic and in some cases, pornographic imagery that were in some of the literature that were in the school districts. I think we reached the right conclusion and laid out *** policy for the entire state to be able to make sure that that's uniform and the materials that are in our school districts. So *** lot of this was in reaction to things that we were hearing about across the state from Iowans and it came from the grassroots organic level. One thing that lawmakers did the week that session ended was property tax reform. You mentioned that for Iowans who may look at that bill and say this is very confusing. What is this bill actually do? What is this going to mean for me? What would you tell them? Well, I would say, first of all, property taxes is like school funding. It is very complicated and that's why it's very hard to try to address the issue. What our goal and our objective was was relief and certainty. What this bill tries to do is provide certainty, excuse me, provide relief through growth. So communities that are seeing growth within their property tax revenue, it would earn their evaluations would continue to see buying down of the property tax rates to continue to make sure that the residents of those communities are seeing that it also provides relief through exempting the first, I think about roughly $4000 of an individuals over the age of 65 exempting the first part of their valuation when it comes to property taxes. That's true relief to them that they will not be taxed on that amount. And so the bill while yes, it seems to be somewhat complicated. I think the objective of the bill is to work towards *** system in which it's *** simpler system moving forward. And while it looks somewhat complicated, I think the current system we have isn't exactly not *** complicated system. So it's always going to be *** little level of that as we move forward. Some people look at this session and they have the criticism that they see it as top down from the governor, that lawmakers are listening to the governor and not Iowans and following national politics ahead of everything else. What's your response to that criticism? Well, the part of the hard part of that question is, is when you have *** governor of the same party and the Senate is of the same party. *** lot of times we're hearing the same concerns all across the state, like I said, representing all 99 counties, the governor represents all 99 counties. We're hearing similar concerns and I think we're responding to similar concerns. *** lot of our candidates ran on similar issues that the governor would have ran on. So I don't think that's unique from that perspective. And there was other bills that the governor introduced that didn't make it to the finish line as well. So for anyone to think that that's the case, I think part of that is just, there's *** similar section of issues that we're hearing about across the state. And if anything, I would actually say it makes what we do track better from the standpoint of the governor who represents the entire state is proposing similar issues that the House and the Senate are looking at because we're all hearing the same concerns. Part of that though is there are issues like private school scholarships, medical malpractice things that had stalled before that the governor had said I want this done and it ended up being accomplished at least from, from the outside. Uh, do you disagree in that sense that there seems to have been some differences this session? I would say the biggest difference. I mean, the, the governor has said that similar uh, concept on those issues, those two in particular in past sessions and obviously, they didn't get done with redistricting. We had *** tremendous amount of turnover within our caucus with 24 new members. So basically *** third over *** third of the caucus was new. I would say that the biggest change that happened from my perspective is we had redistricting, which led to *** lot of new candidates running in *** lot of new areas and *** lot of our candidates ran on issues like scholarships, for example. So when it comes to, you know, making sure that there's no coordinated effort to say, hey, we're all going to do the same thing. But again, it gets back to, we're hearing similar concerns that we're all trying to address. And as you can imagine, Democrats have *** much different take on this year's session next on close up. I'll talk with house minority leader Jennifer Confit Plus Iowa Democrats plan for mailing caucusing, how that would work and how Republicans are trying to ban that plan. Welcome back to close up. You just heard Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley's take on the accomplishments of this year's legislature to get the Democrat side of things. I'm joined by House minority leader Jennifer Con. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it in the interest of fairness. We're going to keep the questions somewhat the same, of course, same questions to Speaker Grassley as you the first being. What your biggest accomplishment is you believe from the Democrat side of things in the last four months. I think we have two big accomplishment accomplishments that I would talk about. One is that we came to together in *** bipartisan way to address property taxes for Iowans. We worked together with Republicans to make sure that we were helping to lower property taxes for Iowans, for seniors, for veterans and make some real change there. Secondly, I feel really good that we continue to push for changes to the bill that addresses labor among kids. And we were able to get 14 and 15 year olds out of dangerous jobs, even though we don't like the bill still. It was *** really good win in *** way that we were able to work together with Republicans to get something done. When we work together, we get better policy. So I was really happy to see that we could do that. I'm going to ask you about the property tax bill. But at first I want to ask about, we heard Speaker Grassley say they listened to constituents on the campaign trail, you know, in October, November, I'm assuming you heard the same thing and your party heard the same things as you went through the campaign process. What did you take from that, those conversations and then bring into the legislature this year heard from Iowans is that they're sick and tired of politics. They wish we would stop talking about politics and focus more on what they need every day. And so we wanted to propose an affirmative agenda even though it wasn't going to be taken up by the Republican party to show what we stand for. So we pushed for defending reproductive freedom, incredibly important and what we heard on the doors *** lot. During the campaign, we pushed for defending and supporting public education. We did that this year, we pushed for making sure that we legalize adult use of marijuana. That's something *** lot of Iowans are asking for. And we pushed lowering costs for Iowa families. We felt like instead of doing things like cutting snap benefits for families who are struggling, we could do things to more holistically lower costs for everyone. What do you say to the Democrats in the state that maybe feel ostracized or whatnot? It's no secret that the republicans own, you know, both sides of the chamber and the governorship. What do you say to those maybe in Johnson County or Scott County or here in Polk County that maybe feel left out? Yes, we, we continue to ensure those folks to pay attention, to stay engaged, to listen because they can see that *** everything swings, the pendulum will swing back. We need more balance in the legislature. I see that when we see some really extreme bills like what passed this session, we can take the focus off of politics and put it more toward people if we stay in the fight and we continue to fight. And that's what I tell my colleagues to do whether they're from *** blue county or *** red county balance is what Iowans need regardless of party affiliation. Yes, certainly not Democrats and just Polk Johnson and Scott County, right on the LGBTQ plus bill side of things that we saw sweeping legislation there, especially in the education side of things. What do you say to those families that feel ostracized by either whether it be the teaching bill or maybe the puberty blocker and those types of bills. You know, I would say to families, especially those kids who feel that they're being targeted, they are by legislation, they're being targeted by this legislation that you are valued and loved and you belong here. And we want to make sure that you're safe at school. We're really frustrated that they've been pulled out and made to be seen as different when all *** kid wants to do is be themselves and live their authentic lives in school. We think the freedom to be who you are is pretty important and we're really devastated that this session was so hard on those families. I promised I'd ask you about property taxes. That is at the beginning of this interview that is *** sticking, not *** sticking point, but maybe *** celebration point for both you and the GOP. What is it about that bill that got so much bipartisan support and why you both want to highlight so much. Here's what I'm going to tell you. It's because Iowans are telling us they want us to address property taxes across the board. Iowans paid their property taxes at the end of March and then got their assessments *** couple of weeks later and were blown away by the rising assessments. They were asking us to do something about it. So when we can find those pieces of common ground, look, the property tax bill is not the one that Democrats would have introduced, but we would have also lowered property taxes. So we thought rather than play politics. Let's focus on what Iowans are asking us for. Let's come together and let's see if we can pass *** bill that will really show relief. I want to ask you about the bill as *** Democrat who didn't support it. What can you do or do you do now that that's passed and we move forward with the ESA program. I'm going to pay *** lot of attention to the implementation of the school voucher program. So we know for *** fact that there are private schools right now raising tuition for students who get vouchers and lowering tuition for students who don't and we're just on the first year of implementation in two years, anyone can get *** school voucher. And so we need to make sure that we're not starving our public schools, but also that it's fair. You know, they talk *** lot about competitiveness with this, but first of all, schools aren't businesses and public schools have to take everyone. So they're the ones who should be getting the most resources because they don't get to pick and choose like private schools do. So it's going to be about accountability. *** few bills left on the cutting room floor, stick out the eminent domain bill being one hands free driving. I think the list could go on what was left on the cutting room floor that you wanted to see get through. I'm really disappointed about hands free driving. You know, this is *** common sense bill that says that you can still talk on the phone in your car, but you need to use Bluetooth or some other technology or even your speaker phone because it's safer. We see that Iowans are getting killed on the roads. There are more accidents. Why aren't we doing something to make it easier for our roads to be safer? I was really disappointed in that. Looking ahead to next session. I know that's *** long ways from now and your eyes lit up like it should be *** long ways from now. What are you looking forward to next session that you as ***, as *** leader in the Democratic Party? Hope to get going *** couple of things. We're going to make sure that we hold Republicans accountable for the bills that they passed this session. There were some pretty extreme extreme bills passed that do not reflect what Iowans want. And so we want to hold them accountable for that. But secondly, at the end of session, we saw glimmers of hope, we saw the ability to work together on property taxes on child labor. We're hoping we can see more of that next session and *** little bit less of Republicans working in secret together to pass budget bills to do things without any democratic involvement. We think when we work together, we can pass better policy and representative conference. Really appreciate your time here on this Sunday morning. I'm sure it's not the last time we'll talk to you here on close up. Thank you for your time. Thanks for having me and still to come on close up. Why Iowa Democrats say they're changing their caucus structure to stay flexible and potentially first in the nation. Last week, the Iowa Democratic Party unveiled major changes to its 2024 caucus to cast presidential preference entirely by mail. And state party leaders say they hope that plan will provide flexibility with so much uncertainty remaining on when other states will hold their democratic primaries. Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart shares how the new two part structure and mail in caucusing will work. Our new Iowa caucuses will be composed of two parts *** mail in expression of presidential preference and our in-person precinct caucuses. During the mail in portion, Iowa Democrats will be able to request *** presidential preference card through the mail or online. They will then have *** window of time to fill it out and return it through the mail ID P will contract with *** professional election vendor to ensure that this process is secure, transparent and accessible. The second part will be our traditional in-person precinct caucuses which will be held on the same date as the Republicans. The date of the precinct caucuses will be decided following discussions with our Republican counterparts and will be held eight days prior to any other state's presidential nominating contest. The precinct caucuses are, when we conduct our party business, we'll elect unbound delegates to county conventions, elect precinct committee persons to county conventions and we'll discuss platform resolutions. Presidential preference results may be released on precinct caucus night or on *** different date. We're not setting that part in stone. However, the tabulation of the expression of presidential preferences will not take place at the precinct caucuses. So look, we know that this uh draft de delegate selection plan will raise *** few questions, but it's designed to provide flexibility in the Iowa Democratic Party to respond to this calendar chaos until we have clarity on what this calendar looks like. We don't have *** menu of options to consider. Unfortunately, we cannot fast forward to the end of this process. So I'd like to turn it over now to um Scott Scott Brennan, our R BC member who can provide some additional perspective on just how unsettled that presidential nominating calendar is. Yeah, I I think it's always my job to talk about the mess that is the calendar since I serve on the rules and bylaws committee. Um just by way of *** little bit of context, uh you know, back uh in, I guess in February, when the D N C finally approved the proposed calendar, it has on the Democratic side, South Carolina February 3rd, New Hampshire and Nevada. February 6th, Georgia February 13th and Michigan February 27th. On the Republican side, you have uh Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada in that order and the dates have not been set or at least not publicly that I'm aware of. Uh but this calendar will not hold. Um New Hampshire has made it very clear that they are going to move. They are not going to go behind South Carolina and their Democrats and Republicans are locked on the same day, so they are going to move. So no matter what Iowa Democrats do, this calendar will not hold, have you had discussions with New Hampshire about that? And do you see any problems on that? And you know, I have not had conversations with New Hampshire on that. Um But I understand what New Hampshire is doing and, and that they are doing what they believe is best for New Hampshire and that's why I'm focused on what's best for Iowa and, and what we have to do here that's gonna be best for Iowa Democrats. The National Democratic Party's primary calendar may already be changing. Last week, the Georgia Secretary of State announced both parties there will hold their primaries on March 12th. That's one month later than what the DNC wanted Iowa Democrats announced their plan to offer mail in caucusing last May. But earlier this month, the Republican Party of Iowa raised major objections to that plan. The GOP fears anything but in person voting would cause New Hampshire to leapfrog Iowa on the nomination last week, Iowa GOP, Chair Jeff Kaufman released this statement warning that if Democrats are serious about keeping Iowa's caucuses first, they can't move ahead with their mail in plan. Kaufman's statement goes on to say Democrats plan to move ahead with that gives the appearance that they are quote, hell bent on tanking Iowa's entire caucus process. Republicans in the Iowa legislature looked at heading off the Democrats plans and next on close up the new law they passed to stop mail in caucusing for decades. The presidential nominating calendar started with the Iowa caucuses followed shortly with the new Hampshire primary. But New Hampshire's top election official says mailing balloting would force them to move ahead of Iowa mail in voting system for their presidential nomination selection process looks like *** primary and New Hampshire will take steps to protect its first in the nation primary. And so to try to stop *** potential problem with New Hampshire Republicans in the Iowa legislature passed *** bill requiring in person caucus voting only this bill if it becomes law will break decades of bipartisan unity and cooperation in support of protecting Iowa's first in the nation caucuses. It will take away Iowa Democrats constitutional rights to set our own rules and processes. There's questions uh of mail in balloting in terms of uh how, how accurate it is, uh how trustworthy it is. Uh The chain of custody on the ballot comes into question. Despite the intentions of that bill, the wording may offer *** loophole for Democrats to legally proceed with their plans. The bill says if *** party chooses its delegates as part of the presidential nominating process at precinct caucuses, that voting must be done in person. But Iowa Democrats plan won't have *** presidential preference vote during their caucus meeting so they may be able to legally move forward with their mail in caucus plan. That bill now heads to Governor Kim Reynolds desk for his signature or veto. Of course, we'll be following it all along the way for you, but for now, thank you for joining us for this edition of K C C eight News. Close up. We'll see you right back here next Sunday. Have *** great day.