(KIWA Staff photo)
Statewide Iowa (RI) — Tuesday was the deadline for Governor Reynolds to take action on all bills that cleared the 2026 legislature.
Barring a special session in the next six months, it marks the final time Reynolds will carry out bill-signing duties as governor — a moment she describes as bittersweet.
Reynolds says that as she and her staff reviewed bills over the past few days, her emotions veered from elation to tears, but she said she’s proud of how things turned out.
The governor considers the property-tax limitations she signed last month to be lawmakers’ highest accomplishment.
Reynolds signed over four dozen bills into law, including:
- Immigration-status checks for anyone applying to work in state and local government. Lawmakers drafted the bill after last fall’s immigration-related arrest of Ian Roberts, the former superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, who has been sentenced to federal prison for falsely claiming U.S. citizenship on his state administrator’s license application.
- A new law stating that Iowans cannot be prevented from adopting or becoming foster parents due to their religious or moral beliefs about sexual orientation or gender identity.
- A bill that sets new state regulations for hydrogen extraction. Experts think there may be large underground pools of hydrogen in Iowa, and one company has already begun drilling wells.
