Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, says the House has enough signatures on a petition to call for a special session of the legislature following Governor Kim Reynolds’ veto of a bill that would have restricted eminent domain for pipeline construction in the state.
The Iowa Constitution requires that two-thirds of the members of the House and the Senate sign a petition calling for a special session before one is held. Grassley tells RadioOnTheGo News that while the House has met that threshold he is unsure if there is enough interest among Iowa Senate leaders.
“Some of the Senate leadership has already said that they’re probably not going to come back in a special session. And I want to remind all the listeners that a special session doesn’t just have to be a veto override. We could be called back by the governor or through petition to consider alternatives. And that’s one of the things where I think there’s some frustration within the House is that for the last several years we’ve had several different bills that we’ve passed out that we could have worked on with the other interested parties and we had an unwillingness and now we find ourselves in a position where the only bill that’s made it through has been vetoed and now we have to try to put ourselves in a position to override that veto again. From the House perspective, I think we can do that, but I’m not sure the fate of what the Senate may look like.”
Grassley says Reynold’s veto of the bill was not surprising but it was a setback for many Iowans, including those in Grassley’s House District 57.
“Obviously I’ve heard from their frustrations and share those with them as well. I would say at this point we need to be contacting senators to have a special session. It doesn’t just have to be a veto override. It could be a session to address the issue of property rights when it comes to the carbon pipeline. But I totally get it from the standpoint of my constituents that have reached out to me and in the area that there’s a level of frustration that we find ourselves here. But I can tell you, regardless of what happens, we’re going to continue to fight to move bills forward, even if that means coming back again next session and making more runs at this. I think contacting the senators, that’s part of why we’ve moved forward with gathering the signatures for a petition, is to continue to build pressure on doing something to address this issue. After years of inaction from the legislature, I think it’s important that we do something.”
In a statement last week, Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver said a “majority of Senate Republicans would not be interested in any attempt to override Governor Reynolds’ veto.”
