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Legislature Starts Back Up After COVID-19 Suspension

Katarina Sostaric
/
Iowa Public Radio
Lawmakers return to the capitol during the COVID19 pandemic on June 3, 2020.

Iowa lawmakers return Wednesday for the 2020 legislative session. Legislative leaders suspended the session numerous times to help slow the spread of coronavirus. They are returning despite the fact that the  Iowa Department of Public Health continues to report new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths daily.

There will be extra health precautions taken at the capitol and meetings will be live-streamed. Lawmakers are working with $360 million less in the state budget than they were expecting.   

Clay Masters
Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.
Katarina Sostaric is IPR's State Government Reporter, with expertise in state government and agencies, state officials and how public policy affects Iowans' lives. She's covered Iowa's annual legislative sessions, the closure of state agencies, and policy impacts on family planning services and access, among other topics, for IPR, NPR and other public media organizations. Sostaric is a graduate of the University of Missouri.