CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: Iowa secretary of state to lead national elections panel

Pate will serve a 12 months within the function, overseeing the committee that develops and shares strategies and finest state practices in working elections. The opposite co-chair will probably be New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver.

“Now we have an unlimited problem forward of us to revive voter confidence on this nation,” Pate stated. “I look ahead to working with my colleagues from across the nation to guard our elections. This can be a essential 12 months, and it’s an honor to be chosen as co-chair of this necessary committee heading into the 2022 midterms.”

In keeping with the group’s web site, the committee additionally tracks proposed federal laws and follows actions of federal businesses and committees associated to elections.

Pate is a previous president of the Nationwide Affiliation of Secretaries of State. He was appointed to his new function by the group’s president, New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Manner.

PROCLAMATION HONORS USS IOWA: Gov. Kim Reynolds celebrated the commissioning of the upcoming Navy submarine USS Iowa by designating Monday, Aug. 22, as USS Iowa Submarine Day in a ceremony on Monday.

The USS Iowa is a Virginia-class submarine that would be the fourth Navy vessel named after the state. It’s presently below development and will probably be commissioned subsequent 12 months.

Reynolds was joined by the crew of the submarine and former Iowa first woman Christie Vilsack, who sponsored the push to call the submarine after Iowa.

“On behalf of all Iowans, I need to inform you how proud we’re to, once more, have a Naval warship bear the identify of Iowa,” Reynolds stated on the ceremony.

Reynolds additionally signed a proclamation designating this week “Iowa Worker Help of the Guard and Reserves Week.”

ANOTHER OPIOID SETTLEMENT: Iowa Lawyer Basic Tom Miller introduced the state and others have reached a preliminary settlement with one other drugmaker to handle the opioid disaster.

Miller’s workplace introduced Iowa and greater than 30 different states, in addition to the District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands, reached an settlement in precept with Eire-based pharmaceutical firm Endo Worldwide.

Beneath the tentative settlement with Endo, which filed for Chapter 11 chapter in New York on Tuesday, and its lenders, the corporate would supply as much as $450 million over 10 years to collaborating states and native governments to settle lawsuits claiming the drugmaker boosted opioid gross sales by falsely selling and overstating their advantages and downplayed the chance of habit.

Endo makes branded and generic opioids, together with Percocet, Endocet and Opana ER. The latter was withdrawn from the market in 2017.

Miller’s workplace stated every state’s share of the settlement has but to be decided.