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3 Things We Know Going into the Week at the Legislature

John Pemble
/
IPR
Iowa Capitol.

Iowa Public Radio’s Clay Masters spoke with Statehouse Correspondent Joyce Russell. Here’s what she told him:

1. Kids likely won’t be allowed to handle guns. Iowa got a lot of national attention for a bill in the Iowa House that would allow children, 14 and younger, to handle a gun under parental supervision. “I would say there’s virtually no way this would pass the senate,” IPR Statehouse Correspondent Joyce Russell said. The gun bill that could pass both chambers is one to legalize gun suppressors.

2. Oversight of the Management of Medicaid privatization looking likely. Managed Care companies are scheduled to take over Medicaid, the joint federal-state healthcare program for low income and disabled Iowans, on April 1st. The Senate voted to provide more oversight.

3. School aid decisions are stalled because of other education issues. The Republican controlled House and the Democratic Senate disagree over how much state aid to give to schools next year. One of the issues holding it up is whether schools need $10 million to get ready for next summer when there will be mandatory summer school for 3rd graders not reading at grade level.

Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.
Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.