Feb. 20 saw the passage of the first legislative funnel. This is a deadline lawmakers set to winnow down bills eligible for consideration for the remainder of the session. It doesn’t apply to spending bills, but does a good job of narrowing what lawmakers will focus on around the midpoint of their time spent under the Golden Dome in Des Moines.

I didn’t have high hopes for this legislative session. Considering the last handful of years, the bar had been set low. But I had a sneaking suspicion they could always go lower. So I’m kind of surprised they didn’t go even lower this year. But then again, it’s not a report card to pin to the refrigerator either.

It goes without saying anything introduced by House or Senate Democrats went nowhere. Bipartisanship is a word that has been unheard of at our statehouse for at least a decade now. So that means fully funding our public education is again a pipe dream. And it means even half-hearted measures introduced by Democrats to combat our water crisis died a quiet death.

Speaking of public education, we’ll be getting another paltry 2% increase in state supplemental aid for our public schools. A rate that has consistently failed to keep pace with inflation. And yet, the number of bills that survived the funnel relating to public education from kindergarten to college are too numerous to list.

Legislators calling the shots at the statehouse sure do seem concerned about every nook and cranny of our public schools and libraries. But when it comes to private schools, even those receiving public money, it’s a different story. Sen. Charlie McClintock’s (R-Alburnett) bill, Senate File 2008, aimed to hold private schools receiving vouchers to the same basic transparency and reporting requirements as public schools. It didn’t even get a subcommittee hearing by his peers.

More bad legislation that survived the funnel includes House File 2530. This stinky (pun intended) piece of legislation would prohibit the Iowa DNR from listing a waterway as impaired unless they have identified what animal’s fecal bacteria was present in the water! This reads like a rejected script from the most boring episode of CSI that thankfully never got greenlit.

Somewhat surprisingly, there’s potential good news on water usage coming out of the funnel. Nothing groundbreaking, but more than we’ve seen from lawmakers in recent years. House File 2447 would require data centers to submit regular reports on their water and energy use. It would also require that the cost to power them be paid for by the data centers, not by everyday people using the water for our drinking supply.

Another bill, House File 2117 would provide funding to retrofit up to 100 private wells with groundwater monitoring equipment. This would more than double the approximately 60 wells currently monitoring our groundwater. These measures would help establish a foundation of knowledge to build on as we negotiate ways to clean up our state’s waters – Iowan’s most valuable resource.

There might be some good that comes out of this legislative session after all. But it’ll fall far short of what Iowans deserve from their elected officials. We best get ready for a lot of fluff and little substance when these legislators turn their attention to the campaign trail later this year.

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Barb Kalbach is a fourth generation family farmer, retired registered nurse, and board member of Iowa CCI Action. She can be reached at barbnealkalbach@gmail.com.