Rep. Sorensen hopes to ‘push play’ in 2021 session on topics tabled last year

DES MOINES — Rep. Ray “Bubba” Sorensen II (R-Greenfield) — who represents Iowa House District 20, which includes portions or all of Cass, Adair, Guthrie and Dallas counties — said Monday that several bills were left on the table last year after the pandemic interrupted that legislative session. He’s excited to bring some of those topics back to light this year at the capitol to see if more headway can be gained.

Politicians reconvened June 3 after time away because of the pandemic and only tackled priority items during that second portion of the session. The 2021 legislative session opens Monday at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines.

“When we came back for our special session, all that stuff [I had been working on] got pushed to the side,” Sorensen said, mainly referring to broadband bills and a few constituent bills he was working on.

It was announced Dec. 1 that Sorensen will chair the Economic Growth Committee this session. Sorensen said that because of election results, the was a “shakeup” in committee assignments.

“This year I’ll be chairman of Economic Growth. I’ll remain on Appropriations and Economic Growth Sub-Appropriations because I think it pairs well with Economic Growth,” Sorensen said. “The House then created a new committee called the I.T. committee, which has a lot of broadband bills, and I’m also on Education this year.”

Sorensen said that maintaining a balanced budget remains important to the Republican caucus. Budget forecasts look better than expect to him, however he expects requests to be higher this year because of COVID-19.

“Thanks to our past efforts we are in a pretty good position. Our reserves our full, we have a surplus. We should be a good spot there,” Sorensen said.

In education, Sorensen said it will be important to set a “responsible and effective” state supplemental aid (SSA) amount early.

Sorensen also sees childcare and workforce issues as important, especially because of the pandemic.

“Childcare is at the top of our minds and it’s something our caucus is constantly hearing about,” Sorensen said. “Across the state, parents are having trouble with high cost, low access to childcare. We’re going to dig in and see what we can do there. I know some things kind of got tabled last year too.”

As a member of the I.T. committee, Sorensen is excited to spearhead efforts to get closer to bringing quality, affordable broadband access to Iowans.

“With me being on Economic Growth and I.T. committee, I will continue to be a leader on broadband efforts and the expansion of broadband,” Sorensen said. “That’s going to be one of my big things that I personally work on.”

Sorensen also said that due to COVID-19, requests for relief will probably be in the front of every state legislature’s mind around the country as lawmakers seek to help in any way they can for those who need it.

“We’ve gotta make sure we’re being responsible, and we can do that because we’ve been responsible the last decade when [our caucus has] been in charge of the budget and have done really well,” Sorensen said. “A lot of things got put on pause [last year]. I am hoping to push play on a lot of those this session and to have a little bit more normal session.”