Budget and threat from 12 GOP senators on eminent domain bill, including Campbell and Guth, delay session end
DES MOINES — The 2025 session of the Iowa Legislature is headed into overtime, with a dozen senators, including two from north-central Iowa, vowing to block a path to adjournment if there’s no action on a bill to prohibit eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines.
The 110th calendar day of the session is tomorrow, meaning that expense payments to legislators stop. Both the House and Senate adjourned this morning for the weekend with a number of issues still to settle.
The biggest issue is the budget for the fiscal year that starts on July 1st. Senate Republicans and Governor Kim Reynolds announced earlier this week that they have reached an agreement on state funding for Fiscal Year 2026, but House Republicans are asking for more money. House Speaker Pat Grassley stated in a news release that the House Republicans budget follows conservative fiscal beliefs while providing needed state financial support for services Iowans care about.
Another road block to adjournment comes from a group of 12 Senate Republicans who are vowing to block a vote on any budget bill unless Senate leaders allow a vote on a House bill that would block eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines.
The group that includes Doug Campbell of Mason City and Dennis Guth of Klemme sent a letter to Senate leadership Wednesday night, saying the people of South Dakota emphatically stated that eminent domain will never be granted for the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline to cross South Dakota, and it’s past time for Iowa to do the same.
The South Dakota legislature passed a bill earlier this year to prohibit the use of eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines.
