Iowa Senate
41°35′28″N 93°36′14″W / 41.591°N 93.604°W
Iowa Senate | |
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Iowa General Assembly | |
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Type | |
Type | |
Term limits | None |
History | |
New session started | January 9, 2017 |
Leadership | |
President pro Tempore | |
Majority Leader | |
Minority Leader | |
Structure | |
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Political groups | Majority
Minority
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Length of term | 4 years |
Authority | Legislative Department, Section 3, Iowa Constitution |
Salary | $25,000/year + per diem |
Elections | |
Last election | November 6, 2018 (25 seats) |
Next election | November 3, 2020 (25 seats) |
Redistricting | Legislative Service Agency with legislative approval |
Meeting place | |
State Senate Chamber Iowa State Capitol Des Moines, Iowa | |
Website | |
Iowa General Assembly | |
Footnotes | |
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The Iowa Senate is the upper house of the Iowa General Assembly, United States. There are 50 seats in the Iowa Senate, representing 50 single-member districts across the state of Iowa with populations of approximately 60,927 per constituency, as of the 2010 United States Census[update].[3] Each Senate district is composed of two House districts. The Senate meets at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines.
Unlike the lower house, the Iowa House of Representatives, Senators serve four-year terms, with no term limits. Terms are staggered so that half the Senate is up for reelection every two years.
Leadership
The President of the Senate presides over the body, whose powers include referring bills to committee, recognizing members during debate, and making procedural rulings. Unlike the more powerful Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives, the Senate President cannot appoint committee chairmanships or shuffle committee memberships.[4] The Lieutenant Governor of Iowa was the presiding officer of the Senate until 1988, when an amendment to the Constitution of Iowa was passed in a referendum (effective from 1991).[5] The other partisan Senate leadership positions, such as the Majority and Minority leaders, are elected by their respective party caucuses to head their parties in the chamber.
The President of the Senate is Republican Charles Schneider of the 22nd District. The Majority Leader is Republican Jack Whitver of the 19th District. The Minority Leader is Democratic Janet Petersen of the 18th District.
Leaders
Position | Name | Party | District |
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President of the Senate | Charles Schneider | Republican | 22 |
Majority Leader | Jack Whitver | Republican | 19 |
Minority Leader | Zach Wahls | Democratic | 37 |
Committee Heads
Committee | Name | District |
---|---|---|
Agriculture | Dan Zumbach | 48 |
Appropriations | Charles Schneider | 22 |
Commerce | Jake Chapman | 10 |
Education | Amy Sinclair | 14 |
Ethics | Jerry Behn | 24 |
Government Oversight | Michael Breitbach | 28 |
Human Resources | Mark Segebart | 6 |
Judiciary | Brad Zaun | 20 |
Labor and Business Relations | Jason Schultz | 9 |
Local Government | Julian Garrett | 13 |
Natural Resources and Environment | Ken Rozenboom | 40 |
Rules and Administration | Jack Whitver | 19 |
State Government | Roby Smith | 47 |
Transportation | Tim Kapucian | 38 |
Veterans Affairs | Mark Costello | 12 |
Ways and Means | Randy Feenstra | 2 |
*All Committee Heads are members of the Republican Party of Iowa.[6]
Current composition
Affiliation | Party (shading indicates majority caucus)
|
Total | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
style="background-color:Template:Democratic Party (United States)/meta/color" | | style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (United States)/meta/color" | | style="background-color:Template:Independent Party (United States)/meta/color" | | |||
Democratic | Republican | Independent | Vacant | ||
End 2012 | 26 | 23 | 0 | 49 | 1 |
Begin 2013 | 26 | 24 | 0 | 50 | 0 |
End of 2014 session | |||||
Begin 2015 | 26 | 24 | 0 | 50 | 0 |
End 2016 session[7] | 23 | 1 | |||
Begin 2017 | 20 | 29 | 1 | 50 | 0 |
End 2018 | 50 | 0 | |||
Begin 2019 | 18 | 32 | 0 | 50 | 0 |
Latest voting share | 36% | 64% | 0% |
Past notable members
- Samuel J. Kirkwood, two time Governor of Iowa (1860–64, 1876–77); two time U.S. Senator (1866–67), (1877–81); U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1881–82)
- George G. Wright, U.S. Senator from 1871 to 1877
- Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007, briefly Democratic candidate for the President of the United States in 2008, and United States Secretary of Agriculture from 2009 to 2017
- George A. Wilson, Governor of Iowa from 1939 to 1943
- Patty Judge, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture from 1999 to 2007, Lieutenant Governor of Iowa from 2007 to 2011
- Steve King, former U.S. House Representative , 2003–2021
- Joni Ernst, current U.S. Senator, in office since 2015
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/SENATE_CHAMBER_seating_chart_detail%2C_from-_Redbook-1882_%2819GA%29_%28page_161_crop%29.jpg/220px-SENATE_CHAMBER_seating_chart_detail%2C_from-_Redbook-1882_%2819GA%29_%28page_161_crop%29.jpg)
Past composition of the Senate
See also
References
- ^ Deeth, John (2012-08-19). "District Of The Day 3: Iowa Senate District 49, Iowa House District 97 & 98". John Deeth Blog. Retrieved 2012-11-02.
- ^ Deeth, John (2012-10-15). "Win or lose, Ward's death mean special election". John Deeth Blog. Retrieved 2012-11-02.
- ^ Iowa Legislative Services Agency (2011-03-31). "First Redistricting Plan" (PDF). p. 3. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
- ^ "The Three Branches of Government". Iowa General Assembly. Archived from the original on 2005-11-10. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
- ^ "The Drafting of Iowa's Constitution". Steven Cross, Iowa General Assembly. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
- ^ Agency, Iowa Legislative Services. "Committees". www.legis.iowa.gov. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
- ^ David Johnson (District 1) switched parties from Republican to "No Party" on June 7, 2016. [1]
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
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- Iowa Legislature official government website
- Iowa Senate at Ballotpedia
- Iowa Senate Democrats
- Iowa Senate Republicans
- Current Iowa Senators