Bill > HSB210

Introduced Session

This bill relates to matters before the Iowa ethics and campaign disclosure board (board). The bill requires a political committee and a candidate’s committee to provide an electronic mail address along with the name, purpose, mailing address, and telephone number of the committee when the committee files a statement of organization with the board. When a committee or organization is not organized under Code section 68A.201, such committee officers are also required to provide an electronic mail address when filing full disclosure reports of all financial activities with the federal election commission or another state’s disclosure commission. The bill extends the deadline for required filings to be submitted electronically to the board from 4:30 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. on the day the filings are due. By operation of law, in computing time, the first day is excluded and the last included, unless the last falls on Sunday or holiday, in which case the time prescribed is extended so as to include the whole of the following Monday, or day after the holiday, as applicable. The bill adds radio and internet advertising to the H.F. _____ definition of “published material” as used in Code chapter 68A, and strikes motion picture advertising from the definition. “Published material”, including radio and internet advertising under the bill, that is designed to expressly advocate the nomination, election, or defeat of a candidate for public office or the passage or defeat of a ballot issue is required to include an attribution statement disclosing who is responsible for the material. The bill requires the attribution statement to be clear and conspicuous. For radio advertising, the attribution statement must be read in a clearly understandable manner. Under current law, a member of the general assembly, a public official, public employee, or candidate, or that person’s immediate family member is prohibited from, directly or indirectly, accepting or receiving certain gifts or series of gifts from restricted donors. Code section 68B.22 provides a number of exceptions to the general gift giving and receiving prohibitions including but not limited to authorizing public officials, public employees, candidates, and members of the immediate family of such persons to accept nonmonetary items with a value of $3 or less from any one donor during one calendar day. The Code section also authorizes a member of the general assembly to receive food, beverages, registration, or scheduled entertainment with a per person value of up to $3 from an organization or association which has as one of its purposes the encouragement of the passage, defeat, introduction, or modification of legislation. The bill increases the gift value to $10 and requires the value of those gifts to be adjusted to reflect a change in value due to inflation based on the annual percentage change in the United States department of labor, bureau of labor statistics, consumer price index for all urban consumers for the midwest region, all items, or its successor index. The Iowa ethics and campaign disclosure board must calculate and record the allowable monetary value changed due to inflation on H.F. _____ January 1, 2024, and every January 1 thereafter. Current law requires the board to annually elect one member to serve as the chairperson of the board and one member to serve as vice chairperson. The bill prohibits the chairperson and vice chairperson from being members of the same political party. Under current law, the board must employ a full-time executive director who is the board’s chief administrative officer. The board must also employ or contract for the employment of legal counsel and any other personnel as may be necessary to carry out the duties of the board. The board’s legal counsel is the chief legal officer of the board and advises the board on all legal matters relating to the administration of Code chapters 68A and 68B. The bill authorizes the board to award the executive director, if that person also serves as the board’s legal counsel, additional compensation. The additional compensation must not annually exceed 50 percent of the maximum annual salary for the range established by the general assembly for the board’s executive director position. The bill provides enforcement provisions related to delinquent civil penalties assessed by the board under Code section 68B.32, subsection 1, paragraph “h”. The bill requires civil penalties to be paid within 30 days of the board’s order for a penalty unless a payment plan is established. Under the bill, a civil penalty that is delinquent for 60 days or longer on or after July 1, 2023, shall accrue interest at a rate of 10 percent per annum, compounded monthly, beginning on July 1, 2023, or the date the penalty becomes delinquent. The bill authorizes the board to send an order to the department of transportation (DOT) to suspend the driver’s license of a person who was issued a license in Iowa, if the person has a delinquent penalty in excess of $250 and received notice as provided in the bill. The bill requires the DOT to suspend the person’s driver’s license within 10 business H.F. _____ days of receiving the board’s order, and then send certain notices. If a delinquent civil penalty of more than $250 is owed by a person who was not issued a driver’s license in Iowa, the board is required to revoke any authority granted by the board for the person to operate a candidate’s committee and a political committee in Iowa until the person’s debt is no longer delinquent. The bill provides for penalties to be waived and stayed under certain circumstances.

AI Summary

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Other Sponsors (1)

Committee report approving bill, renumbered as HF 638. (on 03/06/2023)

Official Document