GOP lawmakers abandon Iowa's civil rights legacy

Ralph Rosenberg served in the Iowa legislature from 1981 through 1994 and was director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission from 2003 through 2010.

The Iowa legislature turned its back on our state’s proud civil rights legacy with last week’s passage of Senate File 2385, which neuters the effectiveness of the civil and human rights agencies and eliminates specific commissions dedicated to marginalized populations.

This combination undercuts Iowa values of respect and protecting the dignity of all Iowans. The bill compounds the removal of legal authority to proactively act on civil and human rights violations, by broadcasting a national message about how the Iowa government devalues diversity in religion, race, ethnic background, gender, or national identity. (Other pending Republican legislation reinforces this message, by calling for K-12 schools to teach history from a Western Civilization perspective, or limiting diversity, equity, and inclusion programming on college campuses.)

NEUTERING THE IOWA CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION

SF 2385 closely tracks Governor Kim Reynolds’ proposed bill on boards and commissions. Senate Republicans largely copied the governor’s ideas for their bill. Key provisions of the legislation strip the Iowa Civil Rights Commission of independent policy advice and statutory authority to:

• investigate potential discrimination; 
• conduct and release findings of independent research without prior approval of the director and governor; and
• examine civil rights violations based on whistleblower evidence or patterns and practices.

SF 2385 removes responsibility and duties from the commissioners and concentrates power with one person: the governor’s appointed director of a renamed Office of Civil Rights. 

The bill restricts the commission’s ability to follow up on evidence of discriminatory patterns or practices or to proactively investigate discrimination and to engage in preventative efforts, such as testing for discriminatory practices. Those may include allegations of discrimination in housing based on whether an Iowan has children or a family, failure to accommodate a disability, or steering potential housing renters and buyers of a certain race towards certain neighborhoods.

Commissioners will be prohibited, or effectively hamstrung, from lobbying or providing information to policymakers unless they receive approval from the governor’s office.

Here are a few examples illustrating how the commission’s work will be affected if it cannot independently investigate or initiate complaints against alleged violators of civil rights.

In the past, if the commission learned that people with disabilities (such as veterans with PTSD needing companion animals) were being denied accommodations, staff could proactively “test” landlords to determine patterns or existence of discrimination. That practice allowed the commission to support the actions of staff and the director, to follow up on a whistleblower informal complaint. SF 2385 removes existing, clear-cut authority to use time-honored efforts like testing to uncover systemic discrimination practices.

Commissioners understood Iowans in the workplace or renting can be intimidated from filing cases. Even with evidence of patterns or trends, the commission and staff will face legal barriers to initiate testing or other investigations, like people being evicted because they had a service animal or because of their physical disability, or women in a particular industry or workforce being harassed.

The bill erases past efforts to educate the public and prevent discrimination. Past commissioners and staff helped achieve annual educational outreach efforts, often exceeding 200 per year. Today’s agency’s performance plan has a goal of 2 per month. Today’s performance plan for the Iowa Civil Rights Commission has a goal of two per month.

Other provisions of SF 2385 eliminate existing human rights commissions, consolidating all into one Human Rights Board with twelve members and just seven voting members. That will reduce representation and voices for Iowans with disabilities, or who are part of marginalized racial and ethnic groups. (Earlier this year, the House State Government Committee had crafted a different bill, which would have spared dozens of state boards and commissions, including the community-specific ones.)

The restructured Civil Rights Commission and Human Rights Board will be unable to offer rapid and independent insight into bills that positively or negatively impact marginalized groups. Current members of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission voted unanimously in March to oppose these changes to the commission and the community-specific bodies.

HOUSE DEBATE REVEALED BIPARTISAN OPPOSITION, CONCERNS

Advocates of SF 2385 portrayed the bill as a way to reduce bureaucracy. During the Iowa Senate debate on April 10, State Senator Chris Cournoyer asserted, “This bill is about maximizing meaningful public participation in the boards and commissions process, and it increases state government accountability and efficiency by eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy.”

While floor managing the bill in the Iowa House on April 16, State Representative Jane Bloomingdale touted the idea of concentrating accountability with a single director. “We’re not taking away any civil rights,” Bloomingdale said. “We are putting a director in charge of an agency, just like every other department. The director is in charge, and the director is accountable for her department. She’s appointed by the governor, confirmed by the Senate.”

Bloomingdale added, “The commission will stay in place. They are also appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.” She did not acknowledge how the bill would undermine the 60-year-old values and purpose of the Iowa Civil Rights Act, which remains just as important in 2024.

Democratic State Representative Ross Wilburn offered an amendment that would strike the section relating to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission from SF 2385. He walked through some of the ways the bill would downgrade the commission’s authority. This video shows his opening remarks, comments from Bloomingdale, and Wilburn’s rebuttal.

Bloomingdale claimed, “The commission will continue to hear cases and make decisions as they do right now. The director of the agency will now be in charge of her department and the 27 full-time employees, instead of a volunteer board. But the volunteer board will continue to hear cases and make decisions on cases, just as they do now.”

She was apparently referring to contested case hearings. But only a small number of the 1,700 to 2,000 civil rights complaints filed in Iowa each year reach the hearing stage in front of the commission. The remainder of the cases are settled, mediated, dismissed, or issued the right to sue in court.

Wilburn replied that “Words matter,” before reading several passages in SF 2385 that remove the commission’s authority.

The bill’s proponents did not mention that the new Office of Civil Rights would inevitably face pressure to avoid claims against other state agencies for employment, public accommodation, and other areas. There was no consideration of the need for a law enforcement agency to maintain independence.

Concentrating power in the hands of one individual, closely situated to the governor or governor’s staff, fractures the commission’s nearly 60-year history. The Des Moines Register highlighted that problem in its April 18 editorial: “Don’t hand over the authority of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission to Kim Reynolds.”

House members rejected Wilburn’s amendment by 58 votes to 38, with four Republicans (Mark Cisneros, Megan Jones, Charley Thomson, and Hans Wilz) joining Democrats to support the proposal.

Democratic State Representative Jerome Amos Jr. offered another amendment that would restore the state’s current community-specific commissions on the status of African Americans, Latino affairs, women, Asian and Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and people with disabilities. He warned that if the bill was left unchanged,

What it’s going to do is, it’s going to water down the voices of individuals that live in this state. Originally, you had a commission report that actually was made up of those different ethnic groups and they actually had a voice, a collective voice. But what this is going to do, it is going to take away that voice.

The new Human Rights Board might include one individual from each marginalized group. “It’s just not going to work. It will not work,” Amos Jr. said.

House members rejected this amendment by 54 votes to 42, with eight Republicans (Eddie Andrews, Mark Cisneros, Chad Ingels, Megan Jones, Brad Sherman, Ray Sorensen, Charley Thomson, and Mike Vondran) joining Democrats to support it.

Several Democrats remarked on the rushed process for considering a 243-page amendment reflecting negotiations between House and Senate Republicans. Bloomingdale introduced that amendment hours before the House debated and voted on the measure. The lack of adequate notice left little time to analyze a significant bill. During the floor debate, State Representative Amy Nielsen, the ranking Democrat on the House State Government Committee, reminded Iowans of the majority’s failure to acknowledge opposing viewpoints and refusal to consider concerns from opponents.

Similar to how the bill forced out state government representation of Iowans who are members of marginalized groups, the debate muted citizen input and ignored offers by the minority party to collaborate. State Representative Adam Zabner characterized the bill as “a power grab that took away the rights of Iowans and the voices of Iowans in the process of government.”

State Representative Charley Thomson was the only Republican to speak against SF 2385 during the floor debate.

Thomson explained that he generally disagreed with the approach of the bill: “I think government is better when lots of people are participating in it.” He highlighted how the bill would change the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, noting that civil rights statutes “were very carefully constructed, the result of many years of debate and compromise, and I think it is disappointing, to say the least, that we are dealing with it in a rather hurried manner without the consent of, or the consensus of many of the people involved.”

The House approved final passage of SF 2385 on April 16 by 54 votes to 42, with all Democrats present and Republicans Eddie Andrews, Steven Bradley, Mark Cisneros, Zach Dieken, Tom Jeneary, Megan Jones, Brad Sherman, and Charley Thomson voting no.

The Senate approved the final version of the boards and commission bill on a party-line 32 to 14 vote on April 19.

BETRAYING OUR STATE’S HISTORY ON CIVIL RIGHTS

Since its inception, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission has been a stalwart defender against discrimination. From Edna Griffin’s stand in 1948 (actually a sit-in six years before Rosa Parks) to recent efforts to enforce disability accommodation laws and safeguard LGBTQ+ rights, the commission has been pivotal in effecting positive change.

Iowa’s legacy is tarnished by this bill. The Iowa legislature and governor are abandoning this history. The State Historical Society of Iowa has done the homework on our history in the publication Iowa: Leader in Civil Rights and Equality. The subtitle of that work is, “How does Iowa demonstrate, ‘Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain?’”

For generations, our state has been a leader in making progress on civil and human rights–enacting laws and advocating for policies to combat discrimination and champion equality. Every day, Iowa becomes more diverse and more diverse than any other day in its history. The proposed changes effectively muffle the voices and concerns of fast-growing groups in Iowa, including the least represented groups in society. Nearly one in five Iowans have disabilities or are members of marginalized racial or ethnic groups. 

Sixty years ago, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was quoted as saying, “I had the audacity to believe that people everywhere could have three meals a day, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.” Dr. King’s vision is stalled by this legislation. When the governor signs this bill, she will leave her legacy on civil and human rights.  

Top photo of Ralph Rosenberg published with permission.