5 Iowa House Democrats reverse votes on Hearing Protection Act

On March 22 the Iowa House of Representatives passed a concurrence vote on the Hearing Protection Act by a 77 to 22 margin. This concurrence vote was required when there’s an amendment on a bill and there are two different versions of a bill passed by the House and Senate. A concurrence vote is required so that the legislature agrees on one version of a bill. In the case of HF2279, the Hearing Protection Act, there was a grammatical tweak made by the Senate that had to be approved by the House.

What’s note worthy about the Hearing Protection Act is that this particular bill first passed the House on February 23rd by a vote of 74 to 24. When the bill came back around for a concurrence vote (after passing the Senate) on the March 22nd the vote total actually ticked upward. The second House vote passed 77 to 22. Our side managed to net three additional YES votes.

A look at the vote totals reveals that five House Democrats reversed their votes. Four went from NO votes to YES votes and one went from a YES to a NO.

These four representatives ‘saw the light’ sometime between February 23rd and March 22nd were:

On the flip side, Representative Berry of Black Hawk County flipped from a YES to a NO for some reason… Perhaps she was fundamentally opposed to the grammatical change made by the Senate???

It’s also worth noting that Representative Art Staed of Linn County turned a few heads within Iowa’s Second Amendment community by voting YES on HF2279 on March 22nd (Staed was a NO vote initially and generally opposes most everything pro-Second Amendment). After voting closed Staed realized he made a mistake in voting yes on the Hearing Protection Act and was forced to go back and flip his vote to a no. So initial reports said HF2279 passed its concurrence vote 78 to 21, but the official record says 77 to 22 and if any of you were wondering why there’s a discrepancy that’s why.

You can find a complete run down of HF2279, the Hearing Protection Act, including the voting break down for every vote on the bill on our 2016 Legislative Session page under the Resources tab.

Iowa Firearms Coalition is an entirely volunteer, grassroots, Second Amendment advocacy group. Responsible for bringing uniformity to Iowa’s Permit to Carry process, IFC’s members work to protect and enhance Second Amendment rights in Iowa. An affiliate of the National Rifle Association, the IFC actively seeks to foster and promote the shooting sports. Sign up for our email list for the latest on Second Amendment issues in Iowa. You can support our work by becoming a member, or making a donation.