[Tall-Corn] Fwd: TIME SENSITIVE INFORMATION: Iowa bill SF2268, an act relating to assistance and service animals

[Cindy Ray]

I am not on the Legislativve Committee, but I have been helping to work on it. The bill passed the Senate Monday and is in the house with the State Government Committee. I have a lot of questions about it, and I think that we might pummel the committee with questions in the hope of asting doubt on the bill. The committee is wworking on strategy and more information will come out from them soon.

Cindy Lou Ray
Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 21, 2024, at 8:51 AM, Don Wirth via Tall-Corn <tall-corn at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Has the legislative committee any thought on this?
> 
> Don
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: ICUB News <news at icublind.org>
> Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2024 17:34:26 -0600
> Subject: TIME SENSITIVE INFORMATION: Iowa bill SF2268, an act relating
> to assistance and service animals
> To: secretary at icublind.org
> 
> *Iowa bill SF2268, A bill for an act relating to assistance animals and
> service animals, including reasonable accommodations for housing and
> requirements for findings of disabilities.*
> 
> 
> 
> *Passed out of subcommittee last week and crossed over to the House for
> passage. The Senate has asked the House to pass it. It adds more hoops and
> potential discrimination for people who are disabled and use service
> animals to be able to rent housing with the service animal. It affects all
> of us who use service animals. Here’s a summary of the bill:*
> 
> 
> 
> *Bill Summary*
> 
> *This bill relates to reasonable housing accommodations for persons with
> assistance animals or service animals. The bill provides that a housing
> provider may deny an accommodation request when granting the request would
> impose undue financial and administrative burden on the housing provider,
> would fundamentally change the nature of the housing provider’s operations,
> the specific animal in question poses a threat to the health or safety of
> others that cannot be reduced or eliminated or would cause substantial
> physical damage to the property of others, or an accommodation is not
> otherwise reasonable. Under current law, a person who knowingly denies or
> interferes with the right of a person with a disability, upon conviction,
> is guilty of a simple misdemeanor. The bill removes this criminal penalty.
> The bill requires that a written finding that an assistance animal or
> service animal is a reasonable accommodation in housing from an approved
> licensee must include express confirmation that the licensee has met with
> the person within the past 30 days, the pair has a provider-patient
> relationship, the licensee is familiar with the person and the disability
> prior to providing the written finding, provides the issuance and
> expiration date of the licensee’s finding, provides the licensee’s license
> number and type of license held by the licensee, and that the licensee has
> not received compensation for making the finding. The bill provides that
> the written finding shall be made within 12 months of the start of a rental
> agreement and is valid for a period of 12 months or the term of the rental
> agreement, whichever is greater. The bill instructs the commission on civil
> rights to create a form in compliance with Code section 216.8C that is
> available on the commission’s website. The commission is also required to
> offer training and consultation to the governing boards of the license
> under Code chapter 148 (medicine and surgery and osteopathic medicine and
> surgery), 148C (physician assistants), 152 (nursing), 154B (psychology),
> 154C (social work), or 154D (behavioral science).*
> 
> 
> 
> *The bill is being fast-tracked, and has passed the Senate now and gone to
> the House. Please take a moment and write to your representatives. **There
> is still time to contact the state representatives from your area with a
> letter and/or a phone call.  If you have questions, or need anything else,
> please feel free to reach out to Bettina or Karen Keninger**.  *
> 
> 
> *Thanks so much!*
> 
> 
> *Bettina Dolinsek*
> 
> *BD/ls*
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Tall-Corn mailing list
> Tall-Corn at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/tall-corn_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Tall-Corn:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/tall-corn_nfbnet.org/cindyray%40gmail.com