Perry shooting looms large as Iowa lawmakers gavel in. Here are some of their priorities:

As Iowa lawmakers returned to the state Capitol Monday, last week’s shooting at Perry High School overshadowed the opening of the new legislative session.

Lawmakers began the proceedings solemnly, with both the House and Senate observing a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting. Eleven-year-old Ahmir Jolliff was killed and seven others wounded, including the school’s principal.

The shooter, 17-year-old Perry student Dylan Butler, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities say. His parents, Jack and Erin Butler, issued a statement Monday afternoon saying they had "no inkling he intended the horrible violence."

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“Our hearts remain heavy with the unthinkable and senseless tragedy that unfolded last week at the Perry High School,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said at the Iowa GOP’s annual legislative breakfast. “And we continue every day to keep the families of the victims and the Perry community in our prayers.”

Hundreds of students walked out of class Monday for a protest that brought them to the Capitol, where they urged lawmakers to take action.

“While Gov. Reynolds goes to work with a huge security staff of Iowa state patrolmen, students will be going to school without laws that will keep them safe from gun violence,” March for Our Lives Iowa, the organizers of the walkout, said in a news release. “Iowa children deserve the same luxury that our Governor has and deserve a future free of gun violence.”

Republicans also touted the conservative policies they have passed in Iowa in recent years, including tax cuts and a universal “school choice” program as they sought to capitalize on the nation’s attention one week before the Iowa Caucuses and portray the state as a model for the country.

“Iowans have come to know our caucus as leaders that will be responsible with their tax dollars and defenders of their freedom,” House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said in his opening day remarks. “That will continue to be the case for as long as Iowans elect a Republican majority.”

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Perry shooting ‘shakes us to the core’ lawmakers say

The shooting in Perry loomed over the opening day of the session from its first moments.

“For all of us, the loss of life in Perry is top of mind as we begin the legislative session,” Grassley said. “People choose Iowa because our state is viewed as safe, so when we see these senseless acts of violence in our own home state, in our own schools, it shakes us to the core.”

Grassley said keeping students safe means many things to House Republicans, including investing in school security, prioritizing school resource officers, protecting children’s mental health and teaching them resilience.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, thanked the “good men and women in Perry and surrounding communities” who prevented the tragedy from “being worse,” recognizing law enforcement, emergency response teams, and the Perry High School principal who tried to talk down the shooter.

“While we can’t legislate away evil and get rid of all the bad things in this world, we will keep our thoughts and prayers with those in Perry as we move forward and put in place policies to make our state better and stronger,” Whitver said.

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At the Iowa GOP breakfast, Reynolds urged Iowans to keep the Perry families in their prayers “during this time of grief and recovery.”

“We’ll continue to work with the community to make sure that they have the whole of government behind them as we work through this heartbreaking time in our state’s history,” she said.

On Monday afternoon, Reynolds signed a disaster proclamation in relation to the shooting, allowing the state to more easily send personnel and equipment to assist Perry.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said lawmakers were “starting the day with a cloud.”

She said the shooting “has shaken us to our core” and told her colleagues, “It’s simply time to do something.”

“Because people at the end of this session should feel safer taking their kids to school in the morning than they do today,” Konfrst said. “That’s our job. Let’s work together to get something done.”

Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, said lawmakers must “find a solution to gun violence” in addition to increasing support for public schools and youth mental health services.

“No child should go to school fearing for their lives, but today, millions do,” Jochum said. “Gun safety should not be a partisan issue. Protecting kids should not be a partisan issue.”

Republicans say they’re willing to pass new laws on school books if needed

Lawmakers on the Administrative Rules Review Committee arrived at the Capitol before dawn to approve rules for the implementation of last year’s laws, including a controversial education law that bans school books with sex acts and prohibits instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.

The committee approved rules to clarify that a “reference or mention” of a sex act in a book does not immediately mark that book as inappropriate for school. Instead, only books that “describe or visually depict” a sex act must be removed. Educators may also make neutral statements about gender identity and sexual orientation without violating the law, under the approved rules.

However, the state cannot currently enforce those sections of the law at all, due to a temporary injunction from a federal judge. The legal battle over the law is ongoing.

In granting the injunction, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Locher said he had been "unable to locate a single case upholding the constitutionality of a school library restriction even remotely similar to Senate File 496," the book ban law.

Grassley was incredulous at the pushback to the law.

“I am still shocked that we actually have people willing to fight this hard to keep pornographic material in our schools,” he said in his opening day remarks. “What is the educational value of oral sex scenes in school library books?”

Grassley said it should have been easy for schools to implement the law but accused some districts of politicizing the issue.

“If we need to pass additional legislation this session, we will,” he said.

Republicans promise to speed up implementation of 3.9% flat tax

Lawmakers return to the Iowa Capitol as the state enjoys a large budget surplus, and Republicans promised to continue lowering the state’s income taxes.

The state closed the books on the last fiscal year with a $1.83 billion budget surplus, as well as $902 million in reserve funds and $2.74 billion in the Taxpayer Relief Fund, which may be used only to reduce taxes.

Republican leaders have previewed that they intend to speed up a series of income tax cuts already on the books that are set to take Iowa to a 3.9% flat income tax by 2026.

Whitver said low taxes will entice Americans to move away from “high tax, high crime, big-spending states” and relocate to conservative states like Iowa.

“This legislative session, we’re going to stay on this path forward, making Iowa a model for other states. We will expedite the tax cuts so Iowans can keep more of their money, sooner,” Whitver said.

“Bidenomics has hit Iowans’ pocketbooks hard,” Grassley said. “House Republicans want to deliver relief that Iowans can feel as soon as possible.”

Konfrst said Democrats are looking at other ways to lower costs for Iowans, like focusing on child care and affordable housing. She urged Republicans to work together with Democrats on solutions for the state.

“Iowa House Democrats firmly believe that a tax bill is not the only thing keeping families from feeling comfortable when they’re doing their kitchen table budget,” she said. “There are a lot of things we can do.”

With one week until caucuses, ‘the eyes of the country are going to be on Iowa’

Republicans used the day to highlight their party’s place on the national stage, a week out from the Iowa Caucuses.

“With just one week away from the Iowa Caucuses, the eyes of the country are going to be on Iowa once again,” Reynolds said at the GOP breakfast. “And you know what, I’m so proud of what they’ll see.”

Party leaders sought to remind their elected officials that despite many of them diverging to support different presidential candidates over the past few months, the looming session was an opportunity to display unity across the party and across the House and Senate.

“We are still united as a House, a Senate and a governor,” Whitver said.

Remarking to reporters that caucus season was a “full contact sport,” Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann predicted members “might need a month or two” to mend any bridges after diverging endorsements in a contested Republican presidential race.

And Kaufmann urged Republicans to remain “extra proactive” in maintaining Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status. Republicans kept the state first on the calendar after Democrats bumped it from theirs.

“This is a sendoff to you and a strong signal that we believe in you,” Kaufmann told legislators.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

Katie Akin is a politics reporter for the Register. Reach her atkakin@registermedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @katie_akin.

Galen Bacharier covers politics for the Register. Reach him at gbacharier@registermedia.com or (573) 219-7440, and follow him on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa GOP opens 2024 session focused on Perry school shooting, tax cuts