DES MOINES, Iowa – Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed a bill, HF 2264, that allowed county funding to go to religious groups provided that the project or program benefits the public and does not require religious or sectarian activity.
Before this Iowa law prohibited any county funding to go to religious groups regardless of the purpose of the funding.
The bill that originally passed in the Iowa House in February had overwhelming bipartisan support.
“This is a good bill, it is going to be able to help individual non-profits. It’s going to bring (counties) and non-profits together to make sure they are serving people,” State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, D-Des Moines, said speaking in favor of the bill during the original debate in the Iowa House on February 20.
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The Iowa House passed the bill by a 93 to 2 vote.
There was opposition to the bill when it reached the Iowa Senate.
State Senator Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, during the Iowa Senate debate on April 1, attempted to amend the bill to state that funds could not be used to promote religious or sectarian services, education programs, or participation requirements.
“The bill says you can’t require certain activities, but it does not address the case of where a church uses the public funds to promote their religion. I would observe that if this amendment is rejected then a court could reasonably infer that it is the intent of this Senate to allow public funds to be used to promote religion, and that would certainly be a strong basis for a court challenge,” he said.
The amendment failed.
The Iowa Senate approved one amendment that changed the word “secular” to “sectarian.”
State Senator Cherielynn Westrich, R-Ottumwa, pointed out what the bill could accomplish.
“One of the things this bill could do is to help finance child care in our state, and add additional facilities for child care and other community projects. This bill would be very important for groups like the Salvation Army, for instance,” she argued, pointing out that a community association in Highland Park had a funding request rejected because of how Iowa law was written.
The Iowa Senate passed the bill 38 to 10, with 10 out of the 15 Democrats present voting against the bill. The legislation headed back to the Iowa House because of the amendment.
State Rep. Anne Osmundson, R-Volga, who managed the bill in the Iowa House, affirmed the Iowa Senate changes stating it did not alter the intent of the bill.
The Iowa House voted again to pass the bill by a 94 to 2 vote on April 3.
Read the new law below:
