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For What It’s Worth… House Speaker’s Rules for Tonight’s Forum

Evidently anticipating a challenging public presence (although as of 5:10 PM there are only about 100 people in the Iowa House galleries), Speaker Murphy provided the following list of rules:

  1. Persons signing up to testify will be permitted on the House floor during a public hearing.
  2. To testify, members of the public will be required to enter the House chamber through the main entrance off the rotunda and will be required to sign-in.
  3. Testifiers on the House floor during a public hearing are restricted to the area in the rear of the chamber and may not sit at legislators’ desks or clerks’ desks.
  4. Testimony will be received at microphones located in the rear of the House chamber.
  5. Each legislator may bring no more than one guest onto the House floor during a public hearing. While on the House floor, the guest must be accompanied by the host legislator at all times.
  6. Members of the public who wish to observe the public hearing but not testify must observe from one of the galleries.
  7. Persons attending a public hearing on the House floor or in the House galleries must respect the rules of the House and must refrain from disruptive behavior.

Further explanation at the start by Representative Geri Huser (D-District 42) made it clear that any disruption may impact the opportunity for future public forms to be held in the House chamber.

I was fortunate to be the one guest of Representative Erik Helland (R-District 69).  I’m enjoying a seat between both Chris Hagenow (R-District 59) and Erik.