Bill Watch List / 2025 Session
Updated: 11/9/2025 8:4 PM
SUPPORT:
Elementary & Secondary Education Related Bills:
- HF845 – Placed on list of unfinished business in the Senate – Eligible for action next year – Allows school districts to offer elective courses on the Bible or Hebrew Scriptures. (Companion to SF510)
- HF870 – SIGNED into law – Allows schools to grant academic credit for religious courses taught by private organizations and establishes guidelines for attendance, credit policies, and legal actions for violations.
- SF175 – SIGNED into law – Requires the inclusion of pregnancy and fetal development in public schools’ human growth and development curriculum for grades 5-12, including a high-definition ultrasound video at least three minutes in duration showing early fetal development.
- SF369 – SIGNED into law – Requires all public school students to pass the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization civics test as a prerequisite for high school graduation.
- SF510 – Placed on list of unfinished business in the Senate – Eligible for action next year – Authorizes public schools to offer and teach elective social study courses on the Bible in grades 9-12. (Companion to HF845)
Foster Care Related Bills:
- SF473 – Passed Senate – Placed on list of unfinished business in the House – Eligible for action next year – Prevents the Department of Health and Human Services from requiring foster care providers or adoptive parents to support policies about sexual orientation or gender identity if it goes against their religious or moral beliefs.
Higher Education Related Bills:
- HF401 – Passed House – Placed on list of unfinished business in the Senate – Eligible for action next year – Requires undergraduates attending public universities to take three semester hours in American heritage, such as Iowa history or American history, government or literature.
- HF437 – SIGNED into law – Establishes the Center for Intellectual Freedom within the University of Iowa, aimed at teaching the historical ideas, traditions, and texts that contribute to the American constitutional order and society.
- HF856 – SIGNED into law – Prohibits state entities, community colleges, and private institutions of higher education from using funds to establish or support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices or to hire DEI officers.
Immigration Related Bills:
- HF572 – Passed House – Placed on list of unfinished business in the Senate – Eligible for action next year – Establishes clear, severe penalties for the crime of human smuggling, including knowingly concealing, harboring, or shielding an illegal alien from detection.
LGBTQ Related Bills:
- SF418 – SIGNED into law – Defines “sex” as “the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth,” requires vital records to reflect the sex at birth, and removes “gender identity” as a protected class in state law. It also bans teaching gender theory in grades K-6.
Pornography Related Bills:
- HF306 – SIGNED into law – Amends current laws to impose stricter penalties on individuals who disseminate or exhibit obscene material to minors, excluding parents or guardians.
- HF864 – Passed House – Placed on list of unfinished business in the Senate – Eligible for action next year – Requires a commercial entity that knowingly or intentionally publishes or distributes obscene material on the internet to use reasonable age verification methods to verify that the individual attempting to access the material is not a minor. (Companion to SF443)
- SF443 – Passed House – Placed on list of unfinished business in the Senate – Eligible for action next year – Requires commercial entities that publish or distribute obscene material to perform reasonable age verification, and if a minor accesses the material on their site, the platform can be held liable. (Companion to HF864)
Religious Liberty Related Bills:
- HF571 – Passed House – Placed on list of unfinished business in the Senate – Eligible for action next year – Medical Right of Conscience Bill. Allows medical providers, doctors, nurses, and institutions to refuse to participate in medical procedures that violate their conscience, and allows them to speak out against wrongdoing and engage in free speech without fear of discrimination or retaliation. (Companion to SF220)
- SF180 – Passed Senate – Placed on list of unfinished business in the House – Eligible for action next year – Prohibits any entity, including a person, a government agency, a healthcare entity, or an employer, from taking adverse actions against an employee or any individual who refuses to take a vaccine because it violates their conscience.
- SF220 – Passed House – Placed on list of unfinished business in the Senate – Eligible for action next year – Medical Right of Conscience Bill. Allows medical providers, doctors, nurses, and institutions, to refuse to participate in medical procedures that violate their conscience, and allows them to speak out against wrongdoing and engage in free speech without fear of discrimination or retaliation. (Companion to HF571)
School Related Bills:
- HF884 – Passed House – Placed on list of unfinished business in the Senate – Eligible for action next year – Allows schools to hire or use volunteer chaplains to support students, with no certification required, and sets rules for background checks and student interaction.
Vaccine Related Bills:
- HF299 – SIGNED into law – Amends existing law to require that information about immunization exemptions be included in communication given to parents by a public school.
Woke Ideology Related Bills:
- SF507 – Passed Senate – Placed on list of unfinished business in the House – Eligible for action next year – Prevents local governments from creating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices, hiring for DEI roles, or requiring statements or preferential treatment based on DEI.
OPPOSE:
Drug Related Bills:
- HF383 – VETOED – Allows doctors to prescribe psilocybin, also known as “magic mushrooms,” if and when the US Food & Drug Administration approves it’s use.
