ABI Priorities Advance at Iowa Statehouse

March 10, 2022 | Taking Care of Business Conference in 'Key City' in 2022 JD Davis, ABI, jddavis@iowaabi.org

March 18th marks the second “funnel” deadline of the Iowa Legislature. Termed so because it is an attempt to push all policy legislation through a final committee in the House or Senate that originated in the opposite chamber. Matters that don’t make it through this “funnel” are to be set aside for the legislative year. 

Advocating for issues to beat the funnel is key to advancing issues and your ABI policy staff thanks those of you who set aside time to come to Des Moines and lobby your legislators and their leaders at this year’s ABI Day on the Hill. Conversations with businesses from back home are so much more impactful on public policy than talking points and white papers from your staff.

Two top priorities for ABI are:

Improvements to workforce delivered through training programs to upskill workers, school to work programs that expose high school students to jobs with ABI members and a new emphasis on re-employing Iowans that find themselves on unemployment.

Tax reform for individuals and businesses was identified as an ABI priority and the Iowa Legislature passed, and Governor Reynolds this month signed a historic tax reform bill that will provide relief for all Iowans and all classes of taxpayers. Legislation affecting the taxation of consumable food production, parts used for airplane repair and other topics important to ABI members remain under consideration.

Once again thank you to all of you that have advocated with your legislators, either during the ABI Day in the Hill, or independently. There is more work to be done and many more issues to cover than space available here.

As a benefit to our members, the ABI policy staff holds Zoom briefings every other Friday updating the progress of legislation and the opportunities for advocacy. You can sign up by visiting the ABI Events webpage at www.iowaabi.org/events. As always, if you have individual questions of the policy staff, they may be directed to the email address listed in the byline. Thank you to all who participate in the ABI public policy development process.