Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to adopt an amendment to SF 2088 that makes various amendments to save money for the state budget, including, but not limited to, consolidating organizations and rescinding appropriations.

Highlights:

-Requires the Iowa Telecommunications and Technology Commission to implement a request for proposals process to sell or lease the Iowa Communications Network (Sec. 1). -Prohibits a state agency of the executive branch of state government from employing a lobbyist with public funds (Sec. 2). -Reduces the amount appropriated for expenditures for office supplies, services contracts, and equipment purchases for state departments or agencies by 50 percent (Sec. 3). -Requires passenger vehicles currently assigned to a state department or agency to be returned to the Department of Administrative Services, which will sell them and implement a plan to lease vehicles for use by the state departments or agencies (Sec. 4) -Repeals the Rebuild Iowa Office and assigns all of its duties to the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division of the Department of Public Defense beginning July 1, 2010 (Sec. 5). -Establishes a Department of Natural Resources, which has the following duties (Sec. 6):

-Primary responsibility for state parks and forests; -Protecting the environment; -Managing energy, including duties previously assigned to the Office of Energy Independence; -Managing fish; -Managing wildlife; -Managing land resources; and -Managing water resources.

-Transfers any funds, grants, loans, contracts, licenses, or permits handled by the Office of Energy Independence to the Department of Natural Resources (Sec. 6). -Specifies that implementation plans and funding for those plans for core curriculum in schools is delayed by 1 fiscal year (Secs. 7-8). -Repeals Preschool Foundation Aid funding programs and the establishment of preschools under that program (Sec. 9). -Requires the state Board of Regents to consolidate into one system and administer all of the operational functions of the institutions of higher education the board governs, including, but not limited to, the following (Sec. 10):

-Communication and information technology; -Personnel and fiscal management systems; and -Legal services.

-Rescinds state payment from the Department of Public Health to community partnership areas for the youth tobacco use prevention and control initiative (Sec. 11). -Rescinds state payment from the Department of Human Services to shelter care providers contracts for guaranteed shelter beds in order for such payment to be provided only for beds that are actually used during the fiscal year (Sec. 12). -Rescinds payments for the state share under the medical assistance Iowa family planning network waiver by the Department of Human Services (Sec. 13). -Requires every state agency and political subdivision to verify the lawful presence in the United States of any person 18 years of age or older who has applied for federal, state or local public benefits (Sec. 14). -Exempts the following services and benefits from the requirement to verify lawful presence in the United States (Sec. 14):

-For any purpose for which lawful presence in the United States is not restricted by law; -For assistance for health care items and services that are necessary for the treatment of an emergency medical condition, not related to an organ transplant procedure; -For short-term, noncash, in-kind emergency disaster relief; -For public health assistance for immunizations with respect to diseases and for testing and treatment of symptoms of communicable diseases whether or not such symptoms are caused by a communicable disease; -For programs, services, or assistance such as soup kitchens, crisis counseling and intervention, and short-term shelter specified by the United States attorney general, in the sole and unreviewable discretion of the United States attorney general after consultation with appropriate federal agencies and departments, which: -Deliver in-kind services at the community level, including through public or private nonprofit agencies; -Do not condition the provision of assistance, the amount of assistance provided, or the cost of assistance provided on the income or resources of the individual recipient; and -Are necessary for the protection of life or safety; and -For prenatal care.

Full Bill Text