House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst

Kay Henderson

Legislative Democrats are the minority, but they're still working to impact key policy decisions. We'll talk with the House Democratic leader, Representative Jennifer Konfrst on this edition of Iowa Press.

 

 

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For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating 50 years of broadcast excellence on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, January 26th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Our guest on last week's Iowa Press was the leader of the executive branch of state government. Our guest this week is one of the leaders of the legislative branch. Jennifer Konfrst is House Democratic leader. She's held that position since June of 2021. Welcome back to Iowa Press.

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Also joining our conversation are Katarina Sostaric of Iowa Public Radio. And Erin Murphy of the Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Representative Konfrst, on this program last week, Governor Reynolds said that she does not believe that Iowa needs all nine of its current area education associations. Do you agree with that?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

I do not. Particularly because I don't know where Governor Reynolds got that information other than the out-of-state company that did the consultation and gave her the advice, because she sure didn't talk to Iowans. When this bill was announced and released, AEAs, families, parents were just stunned because they didn't think there was a problem. And all of a sudden they're talking about losing their special ed services, their mental health services, and their media services in a way that they hadn't anticipated.

More than half of my emails the session so far have been individually written, carefully crafted messages from families who need these services, especially in rural Iowa. So they absolutely do not believe that what we need to do is be cutting back on those services.

 

 

Erin Murphy

And you mentioned the special education services. The rationale for this plan from the governor is that special education scores and performance is not where it needs to be. What needs to be done then to improve those scores, if not to address the way AEAs operate?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

I guess I would probably argue with the premise that scores are the best way to measure success of special ed kids, or many kids, frankly.

 

 

Erin Murphy

How would you then?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Kids aren't products. I think that there are a lot of measurements in terms of success in adulthood, readiness for adulthood and independent living, making sure that kids are learning at their full capacity. These kids aren't products, right? This is not an assembly line. Every kid is different and deserves unique services. And the ACA has helped provide that, especially in those rural areas where they don't have the resources you might have in a metro community.

 

 

Erin Murphy

What's your sense of where this debate is headed? We're still waiting on an amendment that has been announced and still forthcoming from the governor.

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

It's crazy. I mean, I've not seen something like this in the past. You know, on the first day, we had or the second day the governor announced these big changes, the AEAs, we'd all been hearing about them forever. The next day, the governor posted 130 jobs at the at the Department of Education to essentially act like the bill had already passed. And we hadn’t even seen the bill yet. We saw it. Everyone said, whoa, not at all what we want, Republicans and Democrats alike. And I think the governor got caught playing politics there. So we're waiting to see. We keep hearing an amendment’s dropping any minute, but there's not a lot of agreement up there about what to do, because there's not a lot of agreement that there's actually a problem.

 

 

Katarina Sostaric

Now, the governor has also said with the AEAs that they spend too much on administrative costs. Some of these AEA chiefs are making a lot more money than school superintendents and that she wants school districts to control their special own special education funds. Why shouldn't school districts control those funds? And why shouldn't there be more efficient use of those dollars?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

I think that if we're looking at salaries, you know, let's have the conversation about salaries of AEAs. Let's not go in there and eliminate services. Let's talk about the salaries are too high. What can we do about that? And then when it comes to special ed services, you know, in Des Moines or communities that are larger, it's very easy to see that we could take on that those services for our kids in ways because we've got huge staff, lots of expertise. In small communities, especially as they're getting less and less money from the state to help with their public education, they don't have all those resources. And the experts at the AEAs who can really help provide those services. Especially also for those kids 0 to 5 who are getting services who aren't in public school yet.

 

 

Kay Henderson

And the last iteration of this proposal from the governor would eliminate the funding stream for media services. She says that can be done maybe with a business on Main Street. What are you hearing from school districts about the media services portion of what the AEAs do?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Again, this is a place where rural Iowa really is seeing the benefit of these media services more than maybe some of us in bigger communities. And they're able to give their students things that they need in the classroom in ways that they would never be able to afford individually. But additionally, I talked to an AEA leader who said that if they have extra media services money left over at the end of the year, they use some of that to spend it on special ed. And so it's another way that if you cut those services more, more costs and more benefits will be cut from special ed services and special ed kids.

 

 

Katarina Sostaric

Also related to money for education, the governor has proposed raising minimum teacher salaries across the state to $50,000 a year. What are you and your members hearing from schools and educators across the state about that proposal?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

As I like to say, we're welcoming the governor to the cause of raising teacher pay. We've been talking about it for quite a while. We think it's really important. Right now, I don't like that it's tied to the AEA bill. I feel like she's playing politics a little bit. If we want to raise teacher salaries, let's keep that separate from the AEA conversation. We're, of course, excited about the idea of having, you know, a raise for teachers who been there 12 years and entering teachers. Whatever it takes to help with the workforce challenges. However, you know, is it really enough? The devil's in the details. And what I'm hearing from schools is that's great. But I have paraprofessionals who are making less than $10 an hour and are on assistance. Because they're helping our kids who need it the most, and they're making very low wages. What are we doing for them? What are we doing for other educators in the classroom? So it's a great headline. It's a great thing to say she's given teacher raises. Let's make sure that when we're doing it, we're taking care of all the educators who care for our kids.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Talking about headlines, in May of last year, the University of Iowa and Iowa State University announced that dozens of their athletes may have been caught up in a gambling sports betting investigation. This month, we've had some revelations through court documents about testimony from DCI agents. That would be the Division of Criminal Investigation agents at the state level about their investigation. What is your reaction to what's been revealed?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Obviously, it's frustrating to see that there's this kind of dysfunction, this kind of lack of accountability, in an organization as important as this agency. It makes me wonder, you know, it's in the courts right now. So obviously, I don't know a lot of things and we still have a lot to see. But what I do wonder is what kind of shop Governor Reynolds is running here. You know, if this is the kind of place that people can go rogue and start doing things like, you know, illegally listening to other people, doing illegal searches, things like that, what are the consequences? Right? I heard the governor said it's not up to her to address this issue. But she's the leader. She's the governor. Her job is to hold people accountable. She's not doing it right now. And I think Iowans are noticing.

 

 

Kay Henderson

So one of the things that was used is something called geofencing. And I am not even going to attempt to explain what that is. But do you think that is something that legislators does need to address in a broader sense about what are your privacy rights when you use this thing to do stuff on the Internet?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

I think that's a wonderful explanation. But what…and I guess, I don't know. But I think we do need to look into data privacy. We need to continue to look into this. We did something with it last session that is helping. We need to do more and we need to look at social media. There are a lot of things we need to address. I think the problem with what happened with the DCI was they did that without permission in a way that can be really scary when you think about our liberties. And so I'd like to separate those two issues. But at the end of the day, data privacy is something Iowans are concerned about and we need to look into.

 

 

Erin Murphy

This coming week in the House. There will be, there has been scheduled anyways, a subcommittee hearing on legislation that would address Iowa's Civil Rights Act by removing gender identity. I can guess how you feel about that, and feel free to say that. But I also wanted to ask you specifically, the bill, the proposal, removes gender identity from the Civil Rights Act, but also adds gender dysphoria to protected disabilities under the Civil Rights Act. I'm curious specifically, what do you think about that mechanism, whether you think transgender Iowans will still have the same protections under that if this change were to happen?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

This is a bill that is, I can't believe in 2024, we're going to talk about taking civil rights protections away from Iowans.

 

 

Erin Murphy

And you will hear the argument that that's not what they're doing. And I'm not saying that.

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Right. I’m pretty sure…

 

 

Erin Murphy

I'm just saying you're going to hear those arguments. So what is your response to that?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

So you’ve got a mom who has a transgender child who lives in an apartment. If civil rights protections are taken away, it's highly possible that she can't live there anymore, and she can get kicked out and there are no protections for her. Right? Also, if you're looking at this, it's defining something as a disability. I'm not a doctor. We're not doctors. We probably shouldn't be doing that in the state legislature. But additionally, what does that mean for our business community? What does that mean for people who are working in our businesses, our corporations? How does that mean what their responsibilities are for people who are who have gender identity, feelings or, you know, who have identified that they have gender identity presentations. I will say, however, that we're also not really in the business of saying that gender dysphoria is gender identity. I think it's very important to know that gender dysphoria is not a thing. Gender identity is. And so this is playing politics. We know what the goal is: to erase trans Iowans and take away their civil rights. That's the goal. You can't play around in the second half of the bill and pretend that's not what it's going to do when the first half of the bill does it. Can I also say, what are we doing talking about this? Iowans tell me we need housing. They tell me we need childcare. Where are those bills? We've had one bill on housing this year, so far. Why are we focusing on this issue instead of the issues that affect every Iowan?

 

 

Katarina Sostaric

There's a bill in the House that would allow cameras in nursing home rooms so that Iowans can monitor their loved ones who are being taken care of in these care facilities. And it's been worked on for many years. It's moved out of a subcommittee now. How much do you think that will help some of the issues that we're seeing in nursing homes across the state?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

You know, I have some privacy concerns about cameras in people's individual rooms. I think that if we're going to attack this problem with nursing homes, we need to look at the bad actors. We need to increase inspections. I went with the director of the Department of Inspections and Licensing now, and he said, we don't need any more inspectors. Everything is fine, and that 18 months is a perfectly appropriate amount of distance between inspections of nursing homes. I vehemently disagree. And I think we need to do a much better job of inspecting. And I think we need to do a better job of addressing the staffing challenges that exist there, because so often those problems are staffing related. Our elder Iowans deserve to be treated with dignity and respect in these nursing homes. I want to do whatever I can to make that possible. I think that putting cameras in the bedroom or in their rooms is window dressing and not addressing the real problem.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Your colleague on the other side of the aisle, Speaker Grassley, has said he wants to address the staffing issue by addressing salaries paid, wages paid, by temp agencies, if I remember right. Is that one way of getting at that, do you believe?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

For sure. I think that we can, Speaker Grassley and I, can agree on that. Right? That staffing agencies are taking a lot of money off the top and making some really not great promises to some of the people who work with them and put them in a bind. I do think, however, that that's another trim around the edges. We need to stop and say, how are these nursing homes being held accountable? And are they? And we're just not seeing that they are. And I think at the end of the day, let's go in there and look around a little bit. The good ones won't be concerned. The ones who have a problem should be inspected.

 

 

Kay Henderson

Let's shift to tax policy. The governor and her condition of the state message made a tax proposal. And when you talk with legislative leaders in the House and the Senate who are leading their Republican colleagues, they talk about sustainable taxes. What's your interpretation of what you're hearing from the governor in her latest proposal and what you're hearing from the Republican leaders of the House and the Senate in public on this?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

When the governor talks about her tax proposal, she talks a lot about the taxpayer relief fund and our surplus. That is one-time money. That is money that we cannot count on every year. Republicans are talking about the importance of sustainability. You know, the governor's proposing essentially paying your mortgage with your savings account when you don't know if any money is going to come into your savings account again. What we need to do is take it out of the general revenue every year, so that we can predict and make predictions. I also think that when we're talking about tax cuts, which are a lovely talking point and are important for Iowans, we need to be looking at the 500,000 Iowans who will see no benefit from any of these income tax cuts, whether they're accelerated or not, because they don't pay income tax and they still deserve to have lower costs in their households. They're leaving 500,000 Iowans behind by focusing so much on income tax.

 

 

Kay Henderson

So for Iowans who aren't as familiar with tax policy as Erin is, why are 500,000 Iowans not paying income taxes?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

You know, it's sometimes it's salary. Sometimes, you know, the threshold, sometimes they're not working. Stay at home moms or people on disability, things like that. They might not be paying income taxes, but they're still feeling the pinch. And the governor says the reason we need to that Iowans are feeling the economic pinch. So let's cut taxes. Well, what's that going to do for those 500,000 who are really struggling? That's why we've proposed a lot of different ways to lower costs.

 

 

Kay Henderson

The other thing that the governor did was ask to speed up already approved tax breaks from 2022 and make them retroactive. Is that doable?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

You know, doable is something that I'm going to leave to the tax experts like Erin. But I will say that, you know, we're looking very closely at this because I'm concerned that we haven't even seen full implementation yet. I want to make sure the numbers we're basing our planning on are real and not just rosy numbers that are given because we want to make it look like a tax cut works. We've got to look at some independent numbers here, because we're talking about huge shifts in tax policy already and then accelerating those. I want to make sure Iowans have lower costs. And if we can get them to the lowest tax place they can be, great. But I don't want them to be in a position three years from now where we're finding ourselves where we can't even fund essential services.

 

 

Erin Murphy

So let's use this as a segue into what I want to ask you about next, which is Democrats’ legislative agenda. Obviously, Republicans control with their majority control the agenda. But you still have policies that your caucus would like to see happen. Let's segue into that with taxes. How would you help out those 500,000 Iowans?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

You know, I think it's looking at a lot of you know, looking at property tax certainly continues to help and looking at those issues. We want to make sure we're talking to them about ways to lower costs, with tax credits, with community services, things like that. We just think that when costs are a problem, tax cuts aren't the only solution. And so we think we need to be a lot more creative.

 

 

Erin Murphy

You've also proposed things like legalization of marijuana for recreational use. This week you talked about, and I believe introduced a bill that would enroll Iowa in the summer food assistance program for students that Governor Reynolds passed on. Among those or others, what are House Democrats’ top priorities that you would like to see happen if you could get Republicans to come along with you?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

You bet. And we're inviting them to the conversation, right. These aren't partisan issues we're pushing forward. So we have our people over politics agenda, which is House Democrats’ way of saying we're not just here to vote no and fight against Republicans. We want to get something done. And so we want to defend reproductive freedom. We want to support and fund public education. We want to legalize marijuana for adult use. And we want to lower costs for Iowa families. All four of those things are popular with more than 50% of Iowans, not Democrats, not Republicans, Iowans. And so we're pushing for those things because that's what Iowans told us they want. When we traveled the state this year, we heard costs are still an issue. So we have several proposals that we're going to be introducing this year to look at affordable housing, child care, other issues that Iowans are facing every day. Little costs, big costs. What can we do? And, you know, I think the summer EBT bill, is one that I am proud to say, and I can't believe I have to say, that Democrats believe that kids who are hungry should be able to eat in the summer and the state should be able to feed them and take care of them if they're funds available from the federal government. I can't believe we're no.t Iowans can't believe we're not. And that's why we introduced the bill.

 

 

Katarina Sostaric

The state is moving forward this week with sending funding to antiabortion pregnancy centers that was previously authorized by Republicans in the legislature. Are you concerned at all? The original law said that the Department of Health and Human Services had to find an administrator to distribute that funding. The state couldn't find one. Now they're just doing it themselves. Are you concerned that they're kind of going against the way the law was written, or could it be better for oversight for the state to do it themselves?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

I think that oversight would be great if the state was doing it. But the bill that's out there actually also takes away some of the transparency measures that were in there before. And at the end of the day, the governor and Republicans are so focused on these crisis pregnancy centers that they aren't really focused on what Iowans are telling them. These places act like medical clinics. In fact, there's one called Informed Choice Iowa that was an anti-vaccine group that was really active during COVID. And now they've changed their name to Informed Choice Medical Clinics. That is not a place that you can get medical advice. And I think that Iowans are not getting the full story. And when they walk into these clinics, they're not getting all their options. And the state needs to be investing in things to help address sexually transmitted infections, to address, you know, maternal health deserts across the state. There are a lot of things we can do to address issues regarding reproductive care. These clinics aren't it.

 

 

Kay Henderson

In regards to child care policy. Last year, the legislature and the governor approved some changes. And change that's been proposed this year would allow 16 and 17 year olds that are newly able to care for school age children by themselves in a child care center, to care by themselves for four babies or a dozen four year olds. Is that something that Democrats support as child care centers struggle to find people to provide care for children?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

I'm always blown away by the fact that whenever the governor and Republicans see a labor issue, they just want to make kids do the work. I mean, we saw that last year with regard to the child labor bill. What are we doing? I mean, sure, there might be some ways that that will affect it around the edges. But the other changes that have been made to expanding who can care for kids in child care hasn't fixed the problem. So I don't know why we keep going back and saying, well, maybe we'll get three more slots if we can let 17 year olds take care of four babies. That is not leadership. We need to look holistically across the state at what needs to be done on child care and really fix it. Because they're claiming they've helped with child care. And I don't know a parent who's paying less or has better access to child care after what they've done.

 

 

Kay Henderson

One question about affordable housing. Are you as Democrats talking about tax credits for the people who build affordable housing? Are you talking about maybe rent limitations? What sort of proposals are Democrats advancing to make housing more affordable?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Right now, we're working on some rent stabilization legislation that can help ensure people have more predictability when they rent. Work on down payment assistance for homeowners. We're looking at ways to provide grants to people who live in homes, but maybe because of economic circumstances, have windows that have gotten not great or a roof that's gotten not great. Let's give them a grant to stay in their home that way. And then also some creative ways to create additional housing. You know, we have a 25,000 unit housing shortage in this state. We need more housing. And so what can we do? Now that everybody's working from home, are there buildings we can turn into affordable housing? Right? We need to be creative. When we think about housing, we think some of those things are ways to move the needle.

 

 

Erin Murphy

You were a part of the group that made the pitch to the your national party of keeping Iowa first in the nation caucuses that was unsuccessful ultimately for this year.

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Thanks for pointing that out. Yeah.

 

 

Erin Murphy

Yeah. Sorry. Is there hope is there any optimism among Iowa Democrats who would like to see that change in the future, that 2028 could be different? That the order could be shuffled again and return to where it was with Iowa first again?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Sure. You know, one of the things we did this year with the caucuses was make them more accessible. That was one of the feedback, the piece of feedback we heard from the DNC. So we did. Iowans can still participate in the Iowa caucus right now. You can still get your request, your presidential preference card and mail it in. So it is more accessible, more Iowans can participate. But look, when we got the news about what was going to happen with the calendar, it was just for 2024. And so we've been working closely with the DNC and talking with them about how well we do, how organized we are and where, you know, we're leaving ourselves open to being able to make that case for 2028. It's a different story in 2028. So let's see how it goes.

 

 

Erin Murphy

That will be the sale, you'll continue to make that sales pitch and hope that someone at the DNC will be listening?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Well, let's see. I mean, what we're really focused on right now is rebuilding the party. And rebuilding what Democrats are doing across the state. And working hard to make sure that Iowans and Iowa Democrats are organized and fired up and voting. And so that's a conversation for down the road. But for right now, we got these elections in 2024 we're focused on.

 

 

Katarina Sostaric

This year with, you know, the Republican caucuses already took place in person. And the Democrats doing their presidential preference poll via mail in ballots. Do you expect Attorney General Brenna Bird to be prosecuting people for trying to participate in both the Republican and Democratic caucuses?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Hmm. Talk about a solution in search of a problem. You know, I don't know that that's happening very frequently. It doesn't seem like that should be a priority of Attorney General Bird. There seem to be lots of things to focus on. But I wouldn't be surprised. She really loves to play politics from that office, so she might look to try to find an example of something like that happening. I don't think it's a problem, but it might be a good political opportunity for her to make some hay, and I guess that matters to her.

 

 

Kay Henderson

There's a primary coming up in June of this year and candidates who want their name on the ballot in the primary and of course in the general election have to collect petition signatures and file those by March with the secretary of state. What can you tell us about the Iowa Democratic Party's recruitment of legislative candidates, in particular in the Iowa House?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

You bet. That's what we've been doing all year and having really good conversations. Iowans are fired up and frustrated with the direction of the state. I think that's fair to say. They think the state needs balance. One of the most common things we hear when we sit down at a recruiting meeting is this is not the state I grew up in. It's gotten too extreme. I want to bring some balance back. I never thought I'd run and here I am. And so we obviously are recruiting across the state in a lot of districts. We have amazing candidates running in many different districts. And a lot of our targets are here in Polk County, Dallas County, and then over on the eastern border of the state. And we've got great candidates running there. Dan Gosa in Davenport is a school board president, a little league president and a union president. So he's going to come here. We're going to have remind him he's one of, you know, 45 or so. But so we feel like we're really doing well. It's going well because people are fired up.

 

 

Erin Murphy

What is the goal for the Iowa House Democratic Caucus in this in this coming election?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

The goal is always 51. You know, that's a heavy

 

 

Erin Murphy

I'm sorry. I should have said what's the what's the more realistic goal?

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Right. The goal is always 51 and we continue to push for that. But look, we're going to get into the forties and we're going to start to bring that balance back and then we're going to be in a position to flip in 26 or 28.

 

 

Kay Henderson

I am in a position to say we're out of time for this conversation.

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst.

Already?

 

 

Kay Henderson

Thank you for joining us on this edition of Iowa Press.

 

 

Jennifer Konfrst

Thank you.

 

 

Kay Henderson

You can watch every episode of Iowa Press online at IowaPBS.org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for watching.

 

 

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