Fishbonker
Life Member
Here is how to look up legislation.
Go to: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/
Then legislation tab: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation
Then daily legislation bill packet: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/billTracking/billpacket
Then back arrow and click session daily: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/billTracking/sessiondaily
The home page gives you the agenda for the day and what the House and Senate are doing real time. There is also a link to watch the "action" live in both chambers. And yes I have watched it. Riveting TV. Actually some of the floor debates are, to me, interesting but then I enjoy watching ponds freeze, paint dry and grass grow.
The legislation page has tons of links but the two I follow daily are the bill packet which lists all the bills filed in a day. Again, I enjoy looking at those to see what craziness got introduced that day. It is also backwards searchable so if you miss a day you can go back and look. Session daily is a very good page for following along on what the legislature did in a day. All full committee results, amendments and floor votes are posted.
Those are just two of the links on the legislative page but I find them most helpful. There are still several things I don't understand, one in particular is "passed on bill" who ever answers email inquires about how stuff works at the capital sent me an explanation that I didn't follow but maybe the drying paint that day had made me a little dizzy.
If you find a bill you want to look at just click the bill and it will be displayed. Those are the pages I link to and post here. Those pages have a lot of information on them with links. Bill history is good, lobbyist declarations is good, subcommittee and committee assignments are pretty interesting.
If you look at lobbyist declarations you won't see many that declare before the subcommittee votes to either move the legislation of not. What you'll see is "undecided". Lobbyists and the groups they represent don't want to use any political capital unless they have to so if they declare undecided they can still talk to the legislators about the bill but won't really risk anything in the process.
Also this year I'm trying not to make any comments about bills. Last year I was wrong about 50% of the time on some of the more important bills. Meaning to me the bill read one way but it was the subtleties in the bill I would miss and the bill would end up meaning something else entirely. So in my case it's better to be thought a fool than open my mouth and remove all doubt.
The IBA will once again be sending out legislative updates with interpretations of the bills of interest to our members. To receive those updates join the IBA here: http://iowabowhunters.org/joiniba.html
Go to: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/
Then legislation tab: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation
Then daily legislation bill packet: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/billTracking/billpacket
Then back arrow and click session daily: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/billTracking/sessiondaily
The home page gives you the agenda for the day and what the House and Senate are doing real time. There is also a link to watch the "action" live in both chambers. And yes I have watched it. Riveting TV. Actually some of the floor debates are, to me, interesting but then I enjoy watching ponds freeze, paint dry and grass grow.
The legislation page has tons of links but the two I follow daily are the bill packet which lists all the bills filed in a day. Again, I enjoy looking at those to see what craziness got introduced that day. It is also backwards searchable so if you miss a day you can go back and look. Session daily is a very good page for following along on what the legislature did in a day. All full committee results, amendments and floor votes are posted.
Those are just two of the links on the legislative page but I find them most helpful. There are still several things I don't understand, one in particular is "passed on bill" who ever answers email inquires about how stuff works at the capital sent me an explanation that I didn't follow but maybe the drying paint that day had made me a little dizzy.
If you find a bill you want to look at just click the bill and it will be displayed. Those are the pages I link to and post here. Those pages have a lot of information on them with links. Bill history is good, lobbyist declarations is good, subcommittee and committee assignments are pretty interesting.
If you look at lobbyist declarations you won't see many that declare before the subcommittee votes to either move the legislation of not. What you'll see is "undecided". Lobbyists and the groups they represent don't want to use any political capital unless they have to so if they declare undecided they can still talk to the legislators about the bill but won't really risk anything in the process.
Also this year I'm trying not to make any comments about bills. Last year I was wrong about 50% of the time on some of the more important bills. Meaning to me the bill read one way but it was the subtleties in the bill I would miss and the bill would end up meaning something else entirely. So in my case it's better to be thought a fool than open my mouth and remove all doubt.
The IBA will once again be sending out legislative updates with interpretations of the bills of interest to our members. To receive those updates join the IBA here: http://iowabowhunters.org/joiniba.html
