Rules that were put in place in 2005 to help citizens participate in Iowa’s state government have now been undone. Senate subcommittee meeting rules that were removed by the majority Republican party were the requirement for those meetings to be open to the public and that notice of the meeting must be posted 24 hours in advance. Democratic Senator Kevin Kinney is not pleased with these changes and says not having the time frame could make it difficult for Iowans to attend these meetings on such short notice if they want to voice their concerns. When asked if it will impact how these subcommittees work he said, “I don’t foresee it, but the possibility is there and in an emergency or when it came or got down to the end of the session you could waive these. And i don’t know why, i don’t know why they decided to do this. It’s one of those things where you tell people they can come, and you give notice, people have the opportunity to show up and voice their concerns. So, yeah, it does concern me but I don’t think it’s going to be, it’s not going to impede us. It’s just the optics of it look very poor.”

The rules had been instituted when the Senate was split with 25 seats for each party. These subcommittee meetings provide Iowans an opportunity to tell legislators directly how they feel on a particular issue.