With the Iowa Legislature still in recess, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, lawmakers continue to work on various bills.

Iowa House District 47 Representative Phil Thompson of Jefferson believes several policy bills might be taking a backseat, as most of the focus is on the state’s budget, but he is hoping that his Emergency Medical Services bill will move forward this year.

“I constantly work with Representative Bobby Kaufman who is the (house) state government (committee) chair on my EMS bill. I really think that when we re-convene we’re going to be able to make some impactful changes when it comes to our EMS legislation. Because that’s important to me, it’s important to my district and it’s important to a lot of rural Iowans across the state.”

Thompson’s bill would allocate additional funds to EMS departments and make other resources available to counties that declare EMS an essential service.