Back To The Capitol

State Rep. David Sieck is glad to finally be back working from his desk at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines.

Sieck, who represents Mills County, Fremont County and a portion of Montgomery County in the Iowa House of Representatives, returned to the capitol Monday after spending the first six weeks of the 2021 session of the Iowa Legislature working remotely from his home in Glenwood. Sieck, 63, had open heart surgery last June and was advised by his cardiologist not to return to the capitol until he had been vaccinated for COVID-19. 

“I didn’t know if they wanted me to go back to the capitol at all,” Sieck said during an interview last week. “They said, ‘We’re close to getting the (COVID-19) shots, we’d like to see you get the shots before you go up there.’

“I’ve had the shots now and I’m ready to return on Monday.”

For the first six weeks of the session, Sieck had been participating virtually in the legislative process, participating in committee meetings and communicating with constituents and fellow legislators electronically.

“I’ve been watching everything. All of the committee meetings now are virtual,” he said. “I can’t vote. I can register to vote and I can say how I would have voted and they can put that into the record. That way, I’m on record where I stood on something.”

State law requires a legislator to be physically present in the House or Senate chamber when casting a vote. Because Republicans hold a 59-41 majority in the House, Sieck said GOP leaders weren’t concerned that his absence could make a difference in passing or stopping a potential piece of legislation. Up to this point, there have been no close votes in the House.

“They basically told me up front, ‘We have nine extra votes, we’re probably not going to need you until the end of the session,’” Sieck said.

After his heart surgery, Sieck was told his recovery would take several months. Adding to the concern is the fact he had a portion of one of his lungs removed several years ago.

“Between my heart surgery and my lungs, it’s going to take awhile to get all of my strength back,” he said. “After surgery, my cardiologist said, ‘You know, you’re probably not going to feel normal until March or April of next year.’”
Sieck noted that several legislators from both parties have had to take COVID-19 related absences from statehouse proceedings this winter. He said one of the most difficult aspects of working remotely is tracking down information on issues or bills under consideration.

“I’m having a hard time getting input on things that I’m worried about because I can’t go to a particular person’s desk,” he said. “I have to hunt them down on the phone or have somebody reach out to them and tell them that I need to talk to them.”

The 2020 session of the Iowa Legislature was interrupted last March when the pandemic hit. Lawmakers came back in June to wrap up the session, but several bills were left on the table, Sieck said. 

“There were things that didn’t get done last year because when we came back up there, nobody wanted to be there with all the COVID going on,” he said. “We passed the budget and just did what we had to do.

“We wanted to give the governor some freedom. People, right now, are questioning the freedom that we gave the governor. Was it too much? Not enough? Should we do it in the future if this happens again?”

The legislature’s 2021 session is definitely unique, Sieck said, because of the pandemic, but he and his colleagues are committed to doing their best to carry out the duties they were elected to do.

“Having the session going with COVID, I get a lot of emails saying, ‘You shouldn’t be up there,’ or ‘You should all be masked up,’ but so far everything is going pretty well,” he said.

Sieck’s return to the capitol comes at a time when the House has several issues on its plate, including school funding, mental health, expanded broadband, Medicaid and some controversial election bills. In addition to keeping up on those pieces of legislation, Sieck’s been directly involved in study bill discussions with the Department of Homeland Security regarding the state’s levees.

It’s likely those matters will be among the numerous issues Sieck addresses during the first Mills County legislative forum in Glenwood on March 6.