© 2025 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Iowa lawmakers return to Statehouse for 2025 legislative session

Lawmakers getting sworn in during the first day of the 2025 Iowa legislative session.
Madeleine Charis King
/
Iowa Public Radio
State lawmakers were sworn in on Monday to kick off Iowa’s 2025 legislative session.

Iowa’s 2025 legislative session began Monday morning with lawmakers returning to the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines and taking the oath of office.

Two hours before the session began, Republican lawmakers and supporters attended a fundraising breakfast for the Republican Party of Iowa. They celebrated their wins, highlighting their supermajorities in the House and Senate.

Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann even asked the group to dance along to “Y.M.C.A.” to show their excitement for the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has danced to the song at his rallies.

“You’re going to see guys with the cameras. I have confirmation that what is on these cameras, we are going to get these to the president today,” Kaufmann said.

Madeleine Charis King
/
Iowa Public Radio
Iowa Republican Party Chair Jeff Kaufmann spoke with lawmakers, including House Speaker Pat Grassley and his grandfather, Iowa's U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, on the opening day of the 2025 legislative session.

Gov. Kim Reynolds said she felt hope and optimism in the room.

“For almost a decade, we’ve been coming together on this very morning as a united party — and I think that’s something else that not a lot of other states can brag about — to really set a bold, conservative agenda for Iowans,” she said. “And I want to tell you, it’s working.”

Reynolds said she is “extremely, extremely proud” of everything she and GOP lawmakers have done, and she said they have more work to do.

Later in the morning, leaders in the Iowa Legislature gave speeches to welcome lawmakers and lay out their priorities.

Gov. Kim Reynolds said she is “extremely, extremely proud” of everything she and GOP lawmakers have done, and that they have more work to do.

In her speech on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, urged lawmakers to work towards helping “all Iowans.”

“People just want a fair shot,” Weiner said. “They want a fair paycheck for an honest day's work. They want to feed their families. They want to be able to buy a house or afford their rent. They want their children to have the best education possible.”

Weiner also pushed for more funding for public schools and criticized Reynolds for signing a law shifting funding from Area Education Agencies to local school districts.

She encouraged senators to create more affordable housing, reevaluate changes made in 2022, which tightened restrictions on unemployment benefits, and expand access to child care.

“By making child care more accessible and affordable, we can allow parents to enter the workforce with one less worry,” she said. “Recognizing and paying child care workers as the professionals they are will help ease that shortage as well.”

Weiner also called on lawmakers to address rising cancer rates and water quality across the state, and called for transparent spending of opioid settlement funds.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, who announced he was receiving treatment for a brain tumor in May of last year, told senators Monday morning that his brain tumor has been getting smaller, but said he still has a “long ways to go.”

And in his message to Iowans, Whitver pointed to the recent election as evidence voters favor more conservative policies.

“Four years of inflation, open borders and radical leftist policies were rejected in every corner of the country,” Whitver said. “The verdict issued by Iowans and Americans leaves no doubt about what direction they want government to take.”

In the House of Representatives, U.S. Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley administered the oath of office to his grandson, Speaker Pat Grassley.

Speaker Grassley, R-New Hartford, congratulated newly elected representatives and thanked all of the families present for the sacrifices it takes to have a family member in the Legislature.

He said House members have recovered from the campaign trail and are ready to hit the ground running.

Grassley said House Republicans have been responding to the real concerns of real voters when cutting taxes, providing state-funded accounts for private school tuition and weighing in on various social issues.

“Our bills were characterized as an attack, hateful and divisive,” he said. “But the reality is — that we learned this election — that these issues, while emotional, have turned out to be more unifying than ever, based on the election results.”

Grassley reiterated his plans to focus on property tax relief and changes to higher education in the coming weeks.

Lawmakers getting sworn in during the first day of the 2025 Iowa legislative session.
Madeleine Charis King
/
Iowa Public Radio
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst shakes Speaker Pat Grassley's hand on day one of the 2025 Iowa legislative session.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said Monday marked the start of a 110-day journey to make the state better for Iowans. She said families are “feeling the pinch of” the high cost of health care and child care, as well as stagnant wages and layoffs.

“Iowans expect us to help,” she said. “They expect us to ease their burden. Will we work together to make life better, or will division rule the day?”

Konfrst said Democrats will be “laser-focused” on lots of different proposals that have the goal of lowering costs for Iowans.

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.
Isabella Luu is IPR's Central Iowa Reporter, with expertise in reporting on local and regional issues, including homelessness policy, agriculture and the environment, all in order to help Iowans better understand their communities and the state. She's covered political campaigns in Iowa, the compatibility of solar energy and crop production and youth and social services, among many more stories, for IPR, KCUR and other media organizations. Luu is a graduate of the University of Georgia.