Iowa’s public buildings will soon be required to lower their flags to half-staff whenever the governor issues a proclamation directing them to do so.
House lawmakers voted 82-5 on April 23 to pass Senate File 2340, sending it to Gov. Kim Reynolds for her signature. The Senate passed the bill 38-9 on Feb. 25.
“Thank you to the Senate and House for ensuring flags in Iowa will fly at half-staff when officially ordered, showing respect for those whose service deserves such recognition,” Reynolds said in a statement shared on Facebook.
The bill received broad bipartisan support from lawmakers.
“Our respect for our flag and what it represents is critical,” said Rep. Mark Thompson, R-Clarion, the bill’s floor manager.
Rep. Dan Gosa, D-Davenport, called the legislation a good bill.
“God bless our troops, emergency responders and distinguished officials,” he said. “I hope you all will join me in supporting this bill.”
Reynolds proposed the bill earlier this year after Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chair Jon Green last fall declined to lower the county’s flags to half-staff when Reynolds issued a proclamation after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The bill says, “the custodian and the board of public officers of a public building in the state shall have the flags of the United States of America and the state of Iowa flown at half-staff when so directed by a proclamation issued by the governor.”
Johnson County supervisor says ‘silly messaging bill’ a poor use of lawmakers’ time
In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Green called the legislation a “quite frankly silly messaging bill” and said it’s part of a theme of the Republican-controlled Legislature singling out Johnson County.
“I just don’t think that it’s something that needs to be raised to the level of attention that the Legislature has to debate a bill about this and insert themselves into county business,” he said. “I’d rather work in partnership with the Legislature, but these folks, they don’t seem to have any desire to work in partnership. They just want to dictate terms to us.”
Green said he’s also ordered Johnson County’s flags lowered on his own in the past without a gubernatorial proclamation, including after the murder of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman last year.
Asked if he would abide by future gubernatorial proclamations ordering flags to be lowered if Reynolds signs the bill into law, Green said “it depends.”
“If a future governor offered a proclamation for the flags to go down that is as facially outrageous as her proclamation for Charlie Kirk was, you know, we’ll take it day by day,” he said. “It just seems wildly inappropriate.”
“But at the end of the day I’m much more focused on monitoring property tax legislation, stuff that operationally affects us day to day,” he added. “It just strikes me as silly that this is something that the Legislature or the governor think that they need to insert themselves into.”
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: After Charlie Kirk clash, bill ordering lowered flags goes to Reynolds
Reporting by Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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