House Journal: Page 1907: Thursday, April 29, 1999

IMMEDIATE MESSAGE

Rants of Woodbury asked and received unanimous consent that 
Senate File 459 be immediately messaged to the Senate.
REMARKS BY MINORITY LEADER SCHRADER
Minority Leader Schrader offered the following remarks:
This year was the most anticipated session for Democrats in recent memory 
because of our opportunity to work with the first Democratic governor since the Sixties.  
But we supported Governor Vilsack's program to move Iowa forward not so much 
because he was a Democrat, but because he shared our priorities. We worked 
hard for those priorities at the Capitol. And looking back at the session, we can't help 
but be pleased with the progress we made.
Democrats came to Des Moines with a handful of specific objectives - reduce class 
sizes so that kids have more time with their teachers and a better chance to learn the 
basics, especially reading skills; fight the terrible curse of methamphetamine with 
more aggressive law enforcement; return the right to make informed decisions about 
medical care to patients and their physicians; and reduce property taxes, the greatest 
burden to Iowa taxpayers.
We achieved success in each of those areas. Thanks to the relentless drive and 
leadership of Governor Vilsack, we have a higher level of school funding than in recent 
years; a four-year plan to make smaller classes in the lower grades; a new meth lab 
response team to uncover clandestine operations; a new leveling of the playing field for 
patients and their doctors in disputes with their insurers; and a generous property tax 
cut that reaches homeowners, farmers and businesses alike.
The disappointments of this session were more for reasons of omission than 
commission. We should have extended health care to an additional 12,000 children of 
the working poor, but we didn't. We should have been bold in relieving the impact of 
the farm crisis, but we were timid instead. We could have led the nation in ethanol 
promotion, but now we drift behind the leaders.  And we could have restored the rights 
of Iowans to have a say about where hog confinement facilities are located, but they 
will remain powerless.
A General Assembly is a two-year proposition and I have hope that unmet needs 
will be satisfied next year. In the meantime, I wish you a pleasant and productive 
interim.
SPEAKER CORBETT'S FAREWELL REMARKS
Speaker Corbett offered the following remarks:
Thank you Mr. Speaker. This is not just an end of session speech for me, but it's a 
farewell speech. And as I've sat in this chamber many times listening to members give 

© 1999 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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