The Iowa Senate gave final approval on Tuesday to a bill banning cities and counties from issuing local IDs to residents. HF 2296 has been sent to the governor for her signature. Since Gov. Reynolds hasn’t vetoed other bills preempting local government authority — the second bill she signed into law this year stripped local governments of their power to provide civil rights protections beyond those the legislature approves of — it seems all but certain the governor will sign it into law.
HF 2296 is aimed at one particular local government. Johnson County is the only municipality in the state that issues local IDs to residents.
The county created its Community ID in 2015. It provides residents with a photo ID that can be used as a second form of ID when opening an account at a county branch of one of five banks that agreed to accept it. It can also be used as ID at participating pharmacies, as identification to schedule an appointment with UIHC and to get a library card from the Iowa City Public Library. Some businesses in Iowa City and Coralville offer discounts for cardholders.
“The ID was established to ensure that all members of our diverse community are welcomed and can participate fully in the economic and social life of our county,” the Community ID page on Johnson County’s site explains.
In addition to a photo and the full name of the cardholder, the Community ID card also lists the person’s date of birth and home address. An emergency contact as well as allergies and other medical conditions can be added. Each card assigns an ID number to the holder. The cards are valid for four years, and can be renewed. They cost $8 for adults and $4 for children.
The ID cards are issued by the Johnson County Auditor’s Office. According to the office, it issued approximately 200 new ID cards last year, and renewed 50.
“Let’s clear one thing up, right up front,” Sen. Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames, said during the floor debate on HF 2296 on Tuesday. “These locally issued ID do not qualify anyone for any cash benefits, they don’t entitle anyone to any federal benefits, they do not substitute for a driver’s license and they don’t get you a ballot at the voting place.”
“They are useful for identifying people who are having medical emergencies, who may have a heart attack or an epileptic fit or some other situation where they cannot communicate,” he continued. “It gives law enforcement and medical first responders the information about the person’s name, perhaps their home address, so that relatives can be notified.”
The same is true for people injured in accidents, or experiencing disorientation due to dementia or other medical conditions, Quirmbach pointed out.
Neither Ames nor Story County has its own community ID program, but a group largely made up of local churches in Story and Marshall counties, Central Iowa Community ID (CICI), does issue ID cards that are essentially the same as Johnson County Community ID. The difference is CICI’s cards are “not a government issued form of ID,” as the group’s site explains. “[B]ut it is a verifiable form of identification that says you are a part of our community. It can be used as a tool by local law enforcement to better identify, serve, and protect you, and it may be accepted by health centers, schools, businesses, and other city and county agencies — depending on the policy of each.”
Both the Ames Police Department and the Story County Sheriff’s Office support the ID cards, as do some other local government agencies in Story, Marshall and Poweshiek counties, and certain businesses.
Because the CICI cards aren’t from a county or city government, they aren’t affected by HF 2296. The bill doesn’t prohibit local nonprofits from creating community IDs, and it also doesn’t prohibit any municipalities from recognizing or accepting the IDs. The only practical affect of HF 2296 is the termination of the Johnson County Community ID program.
“So, knock yourselves out, pass another bill aimed at Johnson County,” Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, an Iowa City Democrat, said at the end of her remarks during the floor debate. “Use us as a punching bag rather than doing what Iowans actually want — tackling costs and cancer and corruption.”
Earlier in her speech, Weiner quoted from a video posted on social media by a Republican county superintendent in northwestern Iowa who was frustrated with preemption and found it “disturbing that some of the policy that’s been coming out of Des Moines, out of the legislature, has been to attack Democrat strongholds” instead of dealing with pressing problems. The legislation aimed at Democratic counties, also restricts how Republican county officials can deal with their problems. The supervisor said when he asked his representative about this, the response was “Johnson County this, Johnson County that.”
“That supervisor isn’t the only one,” Weiner said. “I’ve sat in on numerous meetings, both in person and on Zoom, across the state where I’ve heard similar sentiments.”
Ever since 2017, when Republicans gained control of both chambers of the legislature, they have passed many bills preempting the authority of city and county governments. Johnson County has often been targeted by these bills, with Republicans legislature pointing to the county as an example of a government doing things they disapprove of, such as setting a minimum wage higher than the national rate of $7.25/hr (preempted in 2017) or protecting transgender residents against discrimination (preempted last month).
“[HF 2296] adds to the majority party’s greatest local preemption hits of the past decade,” Weiner said, before listing some of the things the Republican majority in the legislature has forbidden local governments from doing.
Among the examples Weiner cited were the Republican-led legislature forcing three heavily Democratic counties — one of which is Johnson County — to change how they elect supervisors (the other 96 counties are free to choose if they elect by district or at-large); stopping country auditors from accepting requests for absentee ballots over the phone and limiting counties to one absentee ballot dropbox, which must be placed in a location specified by the legislature; restricting how local sale tax revenue can be used and preempting local voter-approved levies; eliminating local citizen review boards that oversaw complaints against police departments; forbidding local governments from participating in guaranteed income programs or even participating in research about such programs; preempting local ordinances regarding top soil and storm water drainage, and eliminating local regulations providing for oversight on wells and septic systems in large rural developments; preempting local caps on rental permits and local regulations regarding short-term rentals; stopping local governments from requiring landlords not discriminate against renters using federal housing vouchers; preempting local requirements regarding the exteriors of residential properties; and stopping local governments from banning single-use plastic bags.
There are plenty of other examples Weiner noted. She said the majority party has preempted local governments so often “because they can, not because anyone asked them to, and not because they should.”
“These community IDs, they help, they don’t hurt,” Weiner said. “They help those fleeing domestic violence who have to leave everything behind. They help Iowans who are homeless. They help Iowans who have lost everything for a whole variety of reasons, or who can’t get to a DOT office. Ask any law enforcement officer; I have, they’ve caused zero problems.”
Quirmbach also said he’d spoken with law enforcement in Story County about community IDs and was told “they’ve never had a problem with them.”
Like Weiner, he also talked about how the IDs can be important for people who don’t have easy access, or any access, to documents they’d need for a driver’s license or a non-operators ID issued by the Iowa Department of Transportation. Quirmbach recalled working in a Social Security office in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Boston during the 1970s, and how many people struggled to find, or couldn’t find, documents like a birth certificate. Fifty years later, accessing such basic documents is still a problem for some, Quirmbach said.
“For those people, local ID that establishes what their name is and where they live can be a vital resource,” he said. “Let’s not take it away from them.”
The only supporter of HF 2296 and only Republican to speak during the Senate debate was Sen. Cherielynn Westrich of Ottumwa, the bill’s floor manager. Westrich’s opening remarks were just a one-sentence general description of what the bill does, followed by, “The Sheriffs and Deputies Association and the Iowa Police Chiefs Association are all registered in favor because they see this beneficial to reduce confusion on what an official ID is in Iowa.” She added, “And those are my opening comments.” Westrich then sat down.
Sen. Renee Hardman, a Democrat from West Des Moines in opposition to the bill, asked Westrich what is confusing about the IDs.
“I don’t believe I said anything was confusing,” Westrich replied, before realizing she did mention confusion in her opening statement. Reading from a sheet of paper, Westrich repeated her line about the two law enforcement groups registered in favor of HF 2296.
“Do we know what they found confusing about an ID issued by a county?” Hardman asked.
“I don’t have a direct report from them, but I could address that,” Westrich said. “Basically, you know, a local ID does not offer uniform ID in Iowa like a driver’s license or a nonoperator’s permit. That is statewide. That is not confusing for law enforcement. That provides a code on the back that they can — I don’t know how they click on it, but they can read that barcode and see if that person has committed previous crimes, what their record is. Things like that, where they live. Everything comes up on a system.”
“Having a separate ID for one particular county, in my view, localizes it to the point where that person travels outside Johnson County — perhaps across the state, perhaps across into a different state — that ID becomes confusing,” Westrich continued. “And maybe that’s what they were regarding [sic]. When that person travels outside Johnson County, they could use a state-issued ID that is available to them.”
Holding a community ID, Hardman described the information on it. The senator concluded by saying she was in “complete opposition to this bill, because I don’t think it makes any sense whatsoever.” Hardman added that HF 2296 is “another way to take away the rights of local government.”
After Hardman was finished, Westrich concluded the debate by saying she wanted to address some of the things the Democratic senators said.
“Lastly,” Westrich said at the beginning of her closing remark, “the identification that’s provided by these local ID is also provided on a state-issued driver’s license or non-operators permit. So that’s wonderful. Everyone in Iowa can have access to that.”
She thanked Sen. Quirmbach for his remarks, but dismissed his concerns about the difficulty some people face acquiring the documents needed for a state-issued ID, calling it a “historical story.”
“It may have been an issue back in the day, but this is not the 1800s, this is not the 1900s, we don’t do those things anymore,” Westich said. “And these IDs should be available for everyone. If there is an issue in these IDs not being available to citizens of the State of Iowa, we need to address that. But I don’t believe that is an issue, and I believe this solves an issue of those people who feel marginalized being able to be brought in as full, valid citizens of Iowa. And they can have that Iowa ID and be proud of that.”
Westrich used “everybody” and “citizen” interchangeably, but part of the original impetus for both the Johnson County ID and CICI cards was to help immigrants and refugees integrate into their new communities. In a statement reported by the Gazette, Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice (IMMJ) called HF 2296 “one of the most anti-immigrant bills seen this session.”
“This limitation undermines local efforts to create welcoming and inclusive communities for vulnerable populations,” Elena Casillas Hoffman of IMMJ said in the statement.
In her closing remarks, Westrich returned to the possibility of law enforcement officers becoming confused.
“I spoke to law enforcement, and they need to know who they’re engaging when they approach someone,” she said. “If they are not particularly in Johnson County and someone presents a Johnson County ID, they may not be familiar with that particular ID.”
A state-issued ID “will give them the information they need to deal with that person directly,” Westrich said.
The Ottumwa Republican said she would “like to engage in [sic] the comment that was made that in some way this bill is getting back at Johnson County.”
“That is not my intention, I don’t believe it’s the intention of this bill,” Westrich said. “I, for sure, have no intention of getting back at any country in this state, and I don’t understand those comments, because I just don’t feel that way.”
The bill, which passed the Iowa House on a party-line vote, passed the Senate 31-14, with one Democrat, Sen. Catelin Drey of Sioux City, joining Senate Republicans in voting for SF 2296.
