House opens with roll call of first readings, refers dozens of bills to committees

The House convened with an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance before turning to the correction and introduction of bills. A reading clerk recited the titles and brief descriptions of a large batch of House files, and the Chair directed most measures to committee or placed them on the calendar.

Among the bills read were House File 2217, described as "A bill for an act relating to radon testing in schools including responsibility of non public schools applicable to charter and innovation school zones, establishing a school testing and mitigation of radon grant program within the Department of Education, making appropriations and including effective date provisions," which the Chair referred to the committee on education. The clerk also read House File 2218, "A bill for an act relating to video recording systems in special education classrooms," and referred it to education. House File 2220, a broad mental-health package that included provisions on subacute facility requirements, admission and discharge rules, staff employment standards, insurance coverage for subacute mental health care, and establishment of a psychiatric medical institution for children with a bed tracking system, was referred to the committee on health and human services. The clerk described House File 2240 as "an act creating an endowment tax on the endowment value of certain Iowa colleges and universities," and that bill was referred to ways and means or placed on the calendar as noted during the reading.

The readings were largely procedural: the clerk summarized each bill text and the Chair announced whether the bill was "now ready for commitment or amendment" or was "not ready for commitment or amendment" and then referred it to the named committee. No floor debate on the bills was recorded in the transcript; each item was handled through the initial reading and committee referral or calendar placement.