With a sleuth of bills that have been major topics of discussion and some that have been deemed controversial in nature, there have been other bills that don’t get the spotlight, but have been worked on at the Statehouse.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green says one of these bills that was passed out of the Senate Human Resources Committee deals with establishing children psychiatric facilities in Independence and Cherokee for those with higher mental health needs.

“And so this is going to be kind of like a pilot program. It’s a four year program where the DHS (Department of Human Services) is going to have to come back and report to us of how these programs are working. But everybody’s in agreement that we have mental health needs here in Iowa that we need to see improvement in this area.”

Green also serves on the Senate Education Committee and says they passed legislation raising the income level for a school board member that provides services to their school district.

“It used to be that a school board member could only earn up to $6,000 for services that they are providing. But now we raised that cap to $20,000. So if a school is needing more drivers or substitute teaching, whatever, and that school board member can help out a little bit, this will help take some of the burden off of the school districts.” 

Finally, Green serves on the Natural Resources Committee and says they passed a bill that allows a deer tag to be used in another hunting season if that tag isn’t filled during the youth season.