The Iowa Legislature convened for the 2025 legislative session Monday with a new slate of legislators and goals to pass property tax and school cell phone use restrictions, among other proposals.

With their new, larger majorities, Iowa legislative leaders said they are aiming to stay the course they’ve been on since 2017, when Republicans first took trifecta control. House Speaker Pat Grassley said that for years, Iowans have asked for action on lowering costs, changes to the state’s education system and a “return to common sense on immigration and social issues” — and that Republican lawmakers listened and passed measures on these topics.

“It seems many in the media or on the other side of the aisle refuse to believe that it is anyone other than the very far right who has been begging for action on these issues,” Grassley said. “But … we stayed the course. And today, we return for the 2025 legislative session with an even greater majority of 67 seats — the largest majority in history, since the Iowa House went to 100 seats in 1971.”

Grassley said many of the top issues in this session will be continuations of work started in previous sessions, like further limitations on property taxes. He asked for collaboration with local governments and advocates on how to best approach property tax costs.

“For anyone who is interested in delivering real solutions and not just trying to kill everyone else’s ideas — I’m all ears,” Grassley said. “We will do our due diligence and consider each idea. As we do so, I will encourage this chamber to prioritize certainty for the taxpayers over certainty for the taxing entities.”

Focus on higher education continues

Iowa lawmakers are also preparing to tackle education policy — including through a new committee in the Iowa House. The higher education committee, a separate entity from the education committee that has typically handled issues related to Iowa’s regents universities and other post-secondary education institutions, will kick off this session.

Ahead of 2025, Grassley and the committee’s chair Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, have said the committee was formed to review Iowa’s higher education system and ensure they are operating efficiently and focused on programs to meet the state’s workforce needs. Lawmakers have already eliminated funding for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices, but discussion of DEI programs and other issues related to “political agendas” at colleges and universities are expected to come up at the committee.

Grassley said there will also be a large focus on the state’s K-12 education system working through existing education committee. He highlighted Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal requiring schools set policies on cell phone use in schools as one of the issues lawmakers plan to address in 2025.

“We know the dangers of smart phones and social media,” he said. “It’s time to take action. This can include limiting cell phone use during instructional time and putting parents in the driver’s seat of their kid’s social media accounts.”

Grassley also said he was excited to see the work done by the Federal and Other Funds Appropriations Subcommittee. As President-elect Donald Trump has said he will allow states more flexibility in how they spend allocated federal funds, Grassley said the new subcommittee will be a way for Iowa to “be one of the leaders in how best to utilize that flexibility.”

“Instead of federal programs treating Iowa the same as states like California, my hope is we will be able to have more flexibility to spend federal funds in the way that best fits Iowans,” Grassley said.

While Republicans said they want to continue on the path laid out in previous sessions, Democrats in both chambers called for the Legislature to consider proposals that will lower costs of living.

Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner of Iowa City, who is new to the position, offered a list of proposals for the year, including making child care more accessible to working parents, addressing wage theft and misclassification of workers, rolling back restrictions passed in 2022 on unemployment benefits and some of the changes approved last year to Area Education Agencies. AEAs provide special education and other services to public schools. “By restricting their funding, Gov. Reynolds has created a system that straps our smaller and rural districts and leaves them – and Iowa’s

kids and families – with fewer options,” Weiner said.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst also called for action to lower child care, health care and housing costs during the session, saying these should be priorities over divisive issues this session.

“We have a choice … Can we work together to make life better for all Iowans, or will the session be spent on politics?” Konfrst said. “Too many families are feeling the pinch of rising health care, child care costs, stagnant wages and a growing fear of more layoffs around the state. The Reynolds economy has made Iowa second to last in growth, so we need to think more broadly. Iowans expect us to help.”

There are 15 new state representatives and six new senators who are being sworn in Monday, in addition to many incumbents retaking their seats in the 91st General Assembly. The new lawmakers were elected in the 2024 general election and helped grow Iowa Republicans’ hold at the statehouse, now holding supermajorities in both chambers with 67-33 in the Iowa House and 34-15 in the Senate.

There is one Iowa Senate seat currently vacant — that of former Sen. Chris Cournoyer, a LeClaire Republican who was appointed to serve as Gov. Kim Reynolds’ lieutenant governor in December. The special election to fill her seat in Senate District 35 has been set for Jan. 28, with the state parties nominating Katie Whittington as the GOP candidate and Mike Zimmer as the Democratic candidate.

GOP celebrates election victories

At the 2025 GOP legislative breakfast before the session kicked off, GOP leaders celebrated the major wins for Iowa Republicans in the 2024 election. Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann said the election proved that Iowans are happy with the measures passed by Republican majorities in previous state legislative sessions like the Education Savings Account program and six-week abortion ban. The fact that Democrats lost while campaigning against these controversial laws shows that Iowans approve of what GOP lawmakers have been doing at the Statehouse, he said.

“Iowans have set a mandate that they want more of the same,” Kaufmann said.

Kaufmann led the crowd to dance similarly to Trump while the song “YMCA” played, and leaders like Reynolds and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley spoke about their excitement for having Trump in the White House and Republicans in control at both the state and federal levels.

Reynolds said she spoke with Trump at Mar-a-Lago with other GOP governors earlier this month, where he complimented Iowa Republicans on the state’s “leadership in education and reform” alongside other issues – saying that she believes Iowa can play an important role on the national stage for the new administration.

“One of the things that’s really exciting and we talked about is that Iowa can really be an example of what he’s trying to do,” Reynolds said. “Whether it’s government alignment by cutting the red tape, education reform – we have so much opportunity over the next couple of years with Republican control in Washington, D.C. and Iowa.”

Speaker Grassley also said that he believed the Trump administration will do better than President Joe Biden’s administration on addressing issues like immigration and inflation – topics he said Iowa voters showed their concerns over in the 2024 election.

“Though I believe state governments like Iowa will always be more nimble and able to react faster than the federal government, I have much more faith in President Trump and his administration to right the ship,” Grassley said. “Or at the very least, stop standing in the way of states trying to do the right thing.”

While the first week of session will be light on discussion of new bills, lawmakers will hear from several key figures in the following days at the Iowa Capitol. On Tuesday at 6 p.m., Reynolds will give her Condition of the State address; Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Larson Christensen will give the Condition of the Judiciary at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and the Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard Major General Stephen E. Osborn will deliver the Condition of the Guard at 10 a.m. Thursday.