As the Iowa Legislative session pushes on, one local lawmaker continues to make noise for emergency medical services.

District 47 Representative Phil Thompson of Jefferson is working on a policy bill to make it easier for Iowa counties to declare EMS an essential service. Thompson says the current process for counties to declare EMS an essential service is to have the measure voted by the residents and if it passes, it is valid for five years until it comes up for another public vote. Thompson wants to eliminate the sunset following the vote by residents.

“So they can invest in resources, and infrastructure, and ambulances, and long term investments without that sunset. (It will) Allow us to get a little bit more infrastructure and funding locally since we can only do so much at the state (level). As long as we can allow counties to find those resources and get the tools they need to properly fund EMS, I think we’re going to be in a much better situation, especially in our rural areas that we’re really, really under-served in.”

Thompson notes sports-betting funds from the state-run casinos have been allocated toward EMS. Thompson is optimistic that the EMS bill will get passed by the House and Senate and get signed by Governor Kim Reynolds by the end of the legislative session.