Last week was the first funnel week of the Iowa legislative session.

District 24 Senator Jerry Behn explains the purpose of this deadline.

“The rationale behind the funnel week is it really helps us narrow the focus of the bills that have gained support in one chamber. If a bill has not made it out of its respective committees, it will not be eligible for debate the whole rest of the session. So it’s effectively dead for the rest of the session.”

Behn says about a dozen bills made it out of the Senate Education Committee, which he sits on. Some of those bills include dating violence, human trafficking, changing a transfer student’s sports eligibility to hours instead of days and allowing appropriate training for a transitional coach.

The second funnel week ends on Friday, March 11th.  This means only the bills that made it through the first funnel week and made it out of their respective committees will remain eligible this session.

Behn will tell us more about the session on today’s Let’s Talk Greene County program, which airs during the 9am, noon and 5pm hours on KGRA.