By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

House Speaker Pat Grassley says a special legislative session to curb the authority of incoming Democratic Governor Rob Sand is “not on the table.”

After the 2018 election in neighboring Wisconsin, Republicans in that state’s legislature quickly enacted new limits before a Democrat took over as their state’s governor. House Speaker Pat Grassley was asked Friday if the Iowa legislature might hold a special session and do something similar before Democrat Rob Sand takes office as governor here on January 15th. “I don’t see a reason to have one at this point in time,” Grassley told reporters.

On “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS this weekend, Sand he hopes and trusts Republican legislators will not take steps to restrict his authority as governor. “Since World War II, there has only been one candidate for governor that had more Iowans vote for them than I just received right now,” Sand said. “…We had conversations and I answered questions about everything a governor can and can’t do. To come in now after the fact and change the meaning of what those voters said, that’s not public service, that’s politics.”

Grassley said he and other House Republicans will meet soon to identify their 2027 priorities and they’ll consider reasonable and responsible proposals from Sand once he takes over as governor. “But at the same time, we’re not going to be afraid to draw the line if there are things we think go to far or start to compromise our principles,” Grassley said.

Republicans who’ll serve in the Iowa House next year met Friday and re-elected Grassley as House Speaker. Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton will continue as House Majority Leader, John Wills of Spirit Lake will remain House Speaker Pro Tem and Representative Henry Stone of Forest City was re-elected House Majority Whip. Senate Republians met Friday as well and re-elected Mike Klimesh of Spillville as Senate Majority Leader and Amy Sinclair of Allerton as Senate President.