“These issues aren’t new ideas,” Prichard noted. “We’ve had a lot of talk, but not enough action.”
Democrats said federal aid has been slow to reach Iowans with lax GOP oversight, and they hope expand assistance and tap state reserves while passing a balanced budget that meets health care, education and other priorities while “fixing the problems created by the pandemic.”
They released a COVID-19 recovery agenda that includes ways to keep Iowans healthy via testing, transparency and accountability while pursuing ways to open businesses safely and protect workers.
GOP leaders are looking to formulate a “status quo” fiscal 2021 state budget that does not use one-time sources of money to fund ongoing expenses.
Capitol security
The session resumes amid a number of health and safety precautions designed to prevent COVID-19 spread.
New security concerns have arisen related to protests stemming from the death of a Minneapolis man at the hands of police officers last week.
Sgt. Alex Dinkla or the Iowa State Patrol said authorities and Capitol police have plans in place to deal with any unrest at the Statehouse.
“Everybody has their rights, and we definitely want to support those individuals that want to do the peaceful protest,” Dinkla said Monday. “It’s just when the protests choose to get out of hand and start destroying different people’s property, that’s where we just hope that we don’t have to keep going as we move forward.”
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