Iowa’s state legislators returned to Des Moines on Wednesday for the continuation of the legislative session. It has been 11 weeks since lawmakers were discussing items such as education funding increases, IWILL tax relief, and more. The session was put on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with only a few weeks until the next fiscal year begins, lawmakers will discuss the state’s budget, coronavirus-related legislation, and other bills in a short amount of time. Iowa Senator Rich Taylor is ecstatic to see so many people reaching out to legislators, saying he is receiving hundreds of emails every day from Iowans. On the other hand, he is wary of the primary focus of the shortened session being all about coronavirus legislation, and no attention given to other bills, “The budget will be a big thing, but I’m hoping that’s not the primary focus. I’m hoping the primary focus is we go back to work the day we left and take up all the bills that were before us and give them all a fair hearing, give them all a chance. Of course, a lot of people will be disappointed because their bill won’t pass for one reason or another, but I’d rather them be disappointed because we looked at it and couldn’t get enough agreement to pass it rather than we just said, ‘Well, that’s not very important, that’ll wait till next year.’ I’m hoping we don’t do that.”

Taylor says a majority of senators and representatives are of the older adult population, but he is not worried about people disobeying social distancing guidelines while in session, “I’m worried about us as far as the COVID virus. It’s far from over. Most of us that are there are elderly. So ya it concerns me, but I think I know how to take care of myself and everybody else around me knows how to take care of themselves, so I don’t think we will have any issues with staying safe from COVID-19.” This shortened legislative session is expected to only last around two weeks in order to finish before the end of the fiscal year on June 30th. Some legislators, such as House Minority Leader Todd Prichard of Charles City, have ideas of legislation on racial injustice they want to see discussed during session; brought on by the killing of George Floyd, by  Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who is facing murder charges. Three other officers at the scene are also facing charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.