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A standing committee is a group of legislators chosen by the leadership of each chamber to examine all bills relating to a specific subject area. Examples of standing committees in Iowa are Education, Commerce, or Agriculture. This session, I am on three committees: Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and International Relations.
A typical committee meeting includes reading a summary of each bill that has been assigned to the committee, then the chair will assign those bills to subcommittees. After that, the committee will discuss bills that have come out of the subcommittees and take any action needed for recommendations.
Who is in charge of committees? The Speaker of the House appoints the committee leadership. There is a Chair, Vice Chair, and Ranking Member. The Chair and Vice Chair will be members of the Majority Party, and the Ranking Member will be from the Minority Party.
Committee meetings are open to the public to attend in person or via online live stream. You can visit legis.iowa.gov and on the home page view both the Senate and House Committee Schedule. Clicking any of the blue links on the names will take you to the committee location, agenda, and link to watch at home.
If you are following a specific bill, you can see what committee it was assigned to by looking at the “House/Senate Journal” on the home page as well. If you plan to visit the Capitol for a committee meeting or any other reason, please send me an email so I know you are coming! I would love to meet you.
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