Iowa bill, reminiscent of Jim Crow-era, is ‘direct attack on civil rights’ says legislator

UPDATE: Iowa HSB 668 passed out of subcommittee on Feb. 5. An updated story will be posted later. READ MORE.

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An Iowa Legislature subcommittee will hold at meeting at 8 a.m. on Feb. 5 in Room 103 at the Capitol to discuss Iowa House Study Bill 668.

The bill addresses “state policies, programs and licenses with race, gender or citizenship requirements.” The bill would cause sweeping changes across state agencies, including the Iowa Department of Administrative Services and Department of Management, law enforcement, judicial system, schools, colleges and universities, Department of Health and Human Services, Board of Medicine and professional licensing boards. The bill appears to erase race-based considerations and accountability throughout these systems.

The Iowa-Nebraska NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa are against the bill, according to lobbying records. More than 40 people have publicly commented they are against the bill on the Iowa Legislature’s public comment section.

State Rep. Rob Johnson urged people in a Facebook post to attend the subcommittee meeting and pay attention to the bill, which he said is being rushed through the Iowa House “with little notice so the public doesn’t catch it.”

“Let’s be clear: this bill is a direct attack on civil rights,” Johnson wrote in his Facebook post on Wednesday evening.

The bill would have far-reaching implications, among those:

• Remove requirements for state agencies and schools to submit annual affirmative action reports
• Remove Minority Impact Statement requirement from grant applications
• Removes requirements for the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy to create rules regarding racial and cultural awareness/bias training and for agencies to provide annual training and de-escalation techniques
• Removes minority-only restriction from the Iowa Minority Academic Grants for Economic Success program and repeals educational programs for minorities only
• Remove citizenship requirements — allowing applicants to be denied for professional licenses based on citizenship
• Changes health care policy to focus on geographic region and income (not race)

“We need people physically present at the Capitol to show lawmakers that Iowans are paying attention and will not accept civil rights being quietly stripped away,” Johnson said in his post.

The bill follows previous legislation in Iowa and across the nation effectively rolling back civil rights protections. Iowa is also looking at Iowa House Study Bill 664, which would prevent local governments from setting their own policies to protect trans and nonbinary individuals.

Iowa was first in the nation to implement Minority Impact Statements, which was authored by former State Rep. Wayne Ford.

This is a developing story.