With the first funnel over, the new focus with bills moving forward is the second funnel week in the Iowa legislature.

Iowa District 12 Senator Amy Sincalir says that the second funnel can be even more frantic than the first, because both chambers must send their bills to the other in order for the legislation to remain “alive” for the rest of the session. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio how that process looks from the side of the Senate.

“The Senate Majority Leader, Senator (Jack) Whitver takes a look at all those, lines them up, sees which ones he wants to get out first, which ones are most important, which ones are most difficult, that the House (of Representatives) might need a little bit of extra time working through the committee process, and we start debating them. We spent a lot of time on the floor in debate, particularly with those difficult bills, getting those over to the House so that they could get to work on them in their committee process.”

Sinclair adds that the House is doing the same thing, trying to get their bills to the Senate. The second funnel ends on March 31st. Once bills have been approved in both the Senate and the House, they go to the Governor’s desk to either be approved or vetoed.