A key legislative deadline takes place this week in Des Moines. Known as the legislative funnel, Friday, March 3 is the final date for bills and joint resolutions to be reported out of Senate and House Committees.

The funnel is intended to keep the legislative process moving. It is a weeding-out process where only the bills with the most support continue on. By Friday, any bill that doesn’t make it out of committee is essentially dead. Exceptions to the funnel include appropriation bills, ways and means bills, and government oversight bills, which can move forward at any point of the session.

Iowa State Senator for District 46, Dawn Driscoll, elaborates on this busy time for lawmakers, and what leads up to the deadline. “Funnel Week is where you have to have all of your subcommittees, the bills have to go through the subcommittees and they have to be voted on through the committee as a whole to be eligible for floor debate. So that’s why there’s definitely a lot of lobbying going on right now.”

Friday is the first of two legislative funnels in the 2023 Iowa Legislative Session Timetable. For a complete timetable, click here.