Iowa House District 20 Representative Ray Sorensen is hopeful that the state Capitol can return to having more visitors in the near future.

Sorensen says he misses the pre-COVID visitors he used to communicate with on a regular basis. 

“I kind of miss the pre-COVID days. The Capitol was usually abuzz with many visitors. There’s registered lobbyists, but many folks come up and lobby their position or lobby for their bill. I run a lot of constituent bills, which are bills that aren’t my idea but a constituent comes to me with a concern and says ‘Here’s my idea for a bill. Can you help me write this?’ And I’m always more than happy to do that. So, they are able to, especially pre-COVID, it’s a little harder now, they were always able to come in and help shepherd their bill.”

One group that Sorensen did meet with recently was the Panorama FFA Chapter. He says he was impressed with their discussion.

“They had a couple priorities they went over with me. They had a couple questions on what the process is. They were knowledgeable on a couple of bills that were making their way through the progress and had some pretty hard opinions on them. We kind of chatted back and forth. They asked about my specific opinion on a couple bills they had written down. We sat and visited the history of the building. It was great to see the kids there and watch everybody marvel at the beauty of the Capitol and take part in the process.”

Raccoon Valley Radio provides legislative updates throughout the legislative session.