The chairs of the Iowa House and Senate’s Health and Human Services Budget Subcommittees are looking to work with Governor Terry Branstad and the Department of Human Services on meeting the needs of Iowans. Republican Representative Dave Heaton and Democratic Senator Amanda Ragan have chosen not to join twenty other lawmakers and a union president in filing a lawsuit concerning the governor’s decision to close the Mental Health Institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda.

Those behind the lawsuit filed against Branstad and Director of the Department of Human Services state their goal is to reopen the institutions by having the administration comply with Iowa law, which they say was violated when the facilities were closed. According to Heaton, it will be a two year process, like the Toledo Juvenile Home lawsuit, and by that point there wouldn’t be anyone left to hire if the facilities were to reopen.

Heaton told the Department of Human Services during a phone conversation Monday that he wants to have a meeting with the department and Governor’s office in late August about their vision for mental health services in Iowa so they can begin work on making the services accessible to those who need them.