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2026 Iowa legislature begins four-month sprint
This year’s Iowa legislative session is underway, with Republicans in control of the House and Senate for the 10th consecutive year.
House Speaker Pat Grassley of New Hartford opened House action shortly after 10 a.m. “Today marks the starting line for the 2026 legislative session,” Grassley said. “It kicks off about a four-month sprint to accomplish the goals the people of Iowa laid out for us over the past year.”
Grassley indicated the chief goal will be reducing property taxes. “Iowans have made it known the current property tax system is not working for them,” Grassley said. “Seniors on fixed incomes are being priced out of their homes, the high cost of taxes are causing young people to delay homeownership, and every day Iowa families are seeing their taxes rise with no predictability.”
Senate Republicans have unveiled their alternative today. “Over the next hundred days, we will be addressing property tax reform to help bring relief to Iowans who have decided to build their lives, grow their families, and dedicate their careers to our state,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh, a Republican from Spillville, said during his speech this morning in the Senate.
House Democratic Leader Brian Meyer of Des Moines said Democrats have three primary goals. “Our agenda is rooted in what we hear every day from families across this state,” Meyer said, “public education, affordability, and quality of life.”
Senate President Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, began her opening day remarks with a call for civility. Sinclair said it was shocking and horrifying that two Democrats from the Minnesota legislature were shot in their own homes and prominent conservative Charlie Kirk had been killed on a college campus. “When people disagree, it has become disagreeable,” Sinclair said. “The debate no longer stops with policy descriptions; it spiraled into slurs dehumanizing the opposition. Calling people fascists, scum, deplorables, bigots, and a host of things I cannot and will not repeat on the Senate floor cannot be embraced as the status quo here.”
Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner of Iowa City said recent political violence in Minnesota and in Mississippi, where a Jewish synagogue was attacked, has shaken the country to its core. “We Iowans, we take care of our neighbors,” Weiner said. “We are tolerant, and we stand up for the rights that are our rights, too, because we all know ‘Love thy neighbor’ comes with no exceptions.”
Two women who won special elections in December have taken their seats in the state legislature. The 50th member of the Iowa Senate took the oath of office this morning. The seat had been vacant since Senator Claire Celsi’s death in October. Democrat Renee Hardman is the first black woman to serve in the state senate. The 100th member of the House was sworn into office, too. Republican Wendy Larson of Odebolt won the seat that had been held by Mike Sexton of Rockwell City, who resigned after President Trump appointed him state director of USDA Rural Development.
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