Education

• Supports expanding tax credits for individuals and corporations who contribute to a “school tuition organization” that provides scholarships to low- and middle-income children who want to attend a nonpublic school.
• Supports continuation of assistance for students enrolled in accredited nonpublic schools through technology, transportation and textbook appropriations.
• Supports parental choice in education by broadening financial assistance to families through tax credits or other means to allow their children to attend the school of their choice. 
• Supports full funding of the Area Education Agencies. 
• Supports on-site special education assistance through the AEAs.

 

Families and Children

• Supports amending the Iowa Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. 
• Supports efforts to expand family treatment programs; improve childcare programs and increase welfare payments to poor families and children in Iowa.
•  Supports governmental assistance that strengthens families, encourages and rewards work, and protects vulnerable children -- born and unborn.  Supports adequate funding for job training and child care.
• Supports assistance for veterans returning from active duty from war zones.
• Supports legislation to ensure parental consent when free contraceptives are provided to their children.
• Supports efforts to provide comprehensive programs for domestic violence victims and for those who commit these crimes.
• Supports presumption of joint custody.

 

Pro-Life

• Supports ensuring alternatives to abortion for women by providing funding to programs that assist women in crisis pregnancies.
• Supports legislation to promote adoption programs.
• Supports efforts to provide women with a choice to be fully informed about abortion.
• Supports the reinstatement of a ban on human cloning.
• Supports research in adult stem cells, such as with umbilical cord blood.
• Opposes embryo destruction for stem cell research and state funding of embryonic stem cell research.
• Supports disclosure of trafficking of human eggs and fetal tissue.
• Supports extending protections to unborn victims of violence. 
• Supports updating the statistical reporting of abortions law to include procedure used, week of gestation, and county where patient resides.
• Supports restrictions on the use of taxpayer funds for abortions, including taxpayer funds allocated to those organizations that perform and advocate for abortions.
• Opposes any state efforts to legalize assisted suicide and/or euthanasia.
• Opposes the death penalty.

 

Social Concerns

 

Community Corrections 

• Supports sentencing reform that will emphasize community-based corrections for prisoners who are not a threat to the community. 
• Supports sentencing reform that will give greater latitude to judges when deciding appropriate penalties.
• Supports legislation that prohibits sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole.

 

Economic Justice

• Supports a progressive tax system, a just living wage, and fair and reasonable labor practices by employers.  
• Opposes legislation that would allow for additional taxes and/or fees for services to be imposed on not-for-profit organizations.
• Supports legislation to limit predatory lending practices.

 

Elderly Care

• Supports measures to provide effective programs for those who are poor and elderly, including health care, transportation, housing and nutrition. 
• The Conference is in support of development of programs which would provide for a full continuum of care for moderate and low-income families, from assisted living care to nursing home care, etc.

 

Environmental Issues

• Supports measures to preserve, protect, and improve the quality of the air, water, and land in Iowa. 
• Supports strict enforcement of present environmental laws and adequate state funding for this purpose.  The Conference favors local control.
• Strongly endorses legislation that requires industry, including large agricultural related production operations, to be environmentally sound. 
• Supports efforts to expand renewable sources of energy in the state of Iowa.

 

Health Care

• Supports state initiatives which would make health care more readily available and affordable to all Iowans, including immigrants and their children.
• Supports state restrictions on abortion funding and mandates.
• Supports the conscience rights of medical professionals and institutions.
• Supports the broadest expansion possible for HAWK-I and Medicaid services, including eligibility requirements, provider payments and state funding.

 

Housing

• Supports efforts to assist homeless Iowans and to create and preserve affordable housing units as well as rental assistance to low-income families. This includes shelter assistance, case management for homeless children and families, and rehabilitation of existing housing, both city and rural.

 

Immigration

• Supports the basic human rights of documented and undocumented immigrants and refugees. This includes fair treatment under the law for all workers, a just living wage, safe working conditions, and for humane treatment of their children and families. 
• Opposes efforts to make state and local police responsible for the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
• Supports legislation allowing undocumented high school graduates who are residents of Iowa to be eligible to pay in-state tuition rates at colleges and universities in the state of Iowa.
• Supports legislation providing for a provisional driver’s permit for undocumented immigrants.
• Supports full restoration of benefits to permanent legal residents.
• Undocumented immigrants carrying false papers to secure a driver's license or work are currently subject to a felony for such behavior. Felony conviction means automatic deportation. The Conference favors reduction from a felony to an aggravated misdemeanor.

 

Rural Life

• Supports the creation and growth of small business in Iowa’s rural communities through programs similar to the Iowa New Growth Initiative.  The Iowa Catholic Conference supports incentives in rural areas to create new jobs which provide living wages and safe working conditions. 
• Supports strengthening agriculture, local food systems and family farms in Iowa.
• Supports efforts to strengthen the Family Farm Act.

Legislative Concerns in bold-face type are the legislative priorities for the 2010 Legislative Session.

Other concerns may be moved to “priority” status if the issues are introduced and start to advance through legislature.