Hello District 75 from the State Capitol!

The Iowa Legislature is still working towards the last day of the session, when we adjourn “sine die”. This is Latin for adjourning “without assigning a day for further meeting”, according to definitions.uslegal.com.

In week 14, the Iowa House passed five bills with over 90% in favor, one bill with over 70% support, and one passed on party lines. House File 2387 now goes to the Senate and makes it much more difficult for thieves to steal catalytic converters and try to sell to scrap metal recyclers. This bill intends to require sellers to provide evidence of catalytic converter ownership to the buyer.

These converters have small amounts of precious metals like Rhodium, Palladium, and Platinum. Rhodium is very valuable at $14,500 per ounce currently, so some catalytic converters can be worth hundreds of dollars. Last summer, KCCI reported in Des Moines the thefts of around five per day. A Rochester, MN man possibly stole dozens of catalytic converters in Iowa and Minnesota, putting the estimated cost of at least $100,000.

Senate File 2297 passed the House 69-22 with good bipartisan support, which prohibits any person on parole or probation for a felony from serving on a jury and prohibits sex offenders from jury duty also.

On Tuesday, the Iowa House was visited by Daniel Yilung Huang, the Deputy Director of the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Chicago. Huang spoke to several House members about the real concern of possible military actions China might take against Taiwan considering the current atrocious war crimes Putin is inflicting on Ukraine. The actions by the Biden administration in Afghanistan, the southern border of the U.S., and other policies have caused great concern worldwide.

Please have a safe, healthy, and wonderful week everyone!