The first funnel week of this year’s state legislative session has come and gone.

In order for bills to remain alive, they needed to make it through committee by Friday’s deadline. State Representative Ralph Watts says it was a busy week of committee work and there was no floor debate in the House.

Watts is on the commerce committee and one thing they’re working on this year is a revision to the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Law.  He says the current law is an effective one that has worked for several years but revisions are long overdue.

“What we’ve found is Iowa’s benefits over time have become kind of an attractive state for people to file (workman’s compensation) claims… Obviously if you’re injured you should file a claim in the state you’re injured in.  We want to make it fair for workers but we don’t want to make it attractive to those who would take advantage of our system.”

Watts says more than 100 Iowa employers have asked lawmakers to update the workers’ compensation system though the issue continues to be a contentious one.  He says many who want to make sure labor is treated well do not want changes to be made but he too feels it’s important to keep things fair and updated.