DES MOINES, Iowa — The first two weeks of the 91st General Assembly have come and gone, and party leaders discussed with members of the media action taken in that short time.

A casino moratorium is being considered once again in the Iowa House. House Republican lawmakers passed a bill through late last session that failed to make it out of the Iowa Senate. Now, lawmakers are moving quickly on if a moratorium on casinos in the state until June 2030 will be passed. The Iowa Gaming Commission will make a decision at its February 6 meeting on if the Cedar Crossing Casino and Entertainment Center will receive a license.

The Iowa House Speaker said the House Republican caucus opinion is clear, but also added if there is debate on the Iowa House floor in the coming weeks it would be an agreement in the Iowa Republican trifecta.

“If there’s decisions reached that there’s agreement between the House, Senate and the governor, I think we’d have the ability to get that done. Like I said, at this point, we’re focused on what we’re doing in the House with it. We’ve been clear in our position of it. But I also don’t think that if the bill were to go over to the Senate, my expectation that it wouldn’t be us just passing a bill and it was dead on arrival, that’s not my expectation,” said Speaker Pat Grassley, (R) District 57 from New Hartford.

Iowa House Democrats are split on the issue.

“I think it’s going to be a case by case, district by district situation. I do not think I know we will not all be on the same page on that one,” said House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, (D) District 32 from Windsor Heights.

Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner said the Senate Democratic Caucus has not discussed the issue yet, but said she knows trade unions will be for it to have jobs available for the construction project. The bill in the Iowa House will have a subcommittee meeting next Monday.

Also, lawmakers discussed undocumented immigration policy on Thursday after a bill passed through an Iowa House subcommittee that would criminalize smuggling a noncitizen. Just a day after the bill passed through WHO 13 News received reports that ICE had a presence at the Polk County Criminal Courthouse on Thursday morning. It was confirmed to WHO 13 News that one undocumented individual was taken into custody by ICE. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office told WHO 13 News that there was a lot of misinformation about multiple people being arrested, it was only one.

Grassley told media members he had not heard anything of the sort taking place. Iowa Democratic Leadership maintained the same stance on noncitizen legislation as they had last session — let the federal government handle it.

“Immigration is a federal issue. We will see what happens as we move down that road. It’s something that the Trump administration is focused on and we should let the Trump administration do their and do their immigration policy,” said Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, (D) District 40 from Ames.

Governor Reynolds told Iowa law enforcement to abide by federal officials and laws when the ICE raids begin.

Grassley also told reporters that he would expect a bill to be released soon, or multiple, on changes to the state’s property tax code.

“I also don’t see it being one of those typical tax conversations that just waits until the last week in session. It’s such a complex issue that I think it’s something that needs a kind of a longer runway to land because it is more complicated than just a personal income tax cut,” said Grassley.

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