Next regular session

2027 session path

The 2026 session adjourned sine die on May 3. House File 523 takes effect July 1, 2026. The next regular session is the first window for the six-section bill.

Not legal advice. This page is a campaign calendar, not counsel about any order, case, or person. An order already signed stays in force until the court that issued it changes it. A statute that has not been enacted does not modify a signed order.

Where 2026 left the calendar

The Legislature adjourned sine die on May 3, 2026. That closed the 2026 regular session. House File 523, which expanded access to emergency protective orders, is effective July 1, 2026. This campaign leaves § 236.6 alone; the draft bill does not reopen that emergency track. Full repeal of chapters 236 and 664A will not get a subcommittee. The work that remains is a short, cheapest-first package.

1. Before January: find a sponsor. A bill reaches the Iowa Legislature only when a Representative or Senator agrees to sponsor it. Find yours at the Legislature’s legislator finder. Judiciary is a natural first ask — see who can introduce this bill. Ask them to introduce the six sections on the cheapest-lever page, not repeal. Hand them the sponsor ask kit or the short message and memo on the take-action page.
2. Before January: conflict check if you retain help. You do not need paid help to ask your own members to sponsor. If you later retain drafting or Capitol help, run a written conflict check first. Registration is public on the Legislature’s lobbyist search. Ask for a one-page memo of the section they will actually file before you pay a session retainer.
3. Before January: LSA drafting. The Legislative Services Agency turns sponsor instructions into bill form. The model bill on this site is draft language for a sponsor and for LSA — placeholders for numbering, Iowa drafting style, six sections cheapest first. It is not introduced legislation.
4. Subcommittee. A referred bill needs a subcommittee hearing before it can move. Bring the cheapest sections first: non-mootness language, written findings before a five-year order, then the fourteen-day hearing. The Iowa Supreme Court’s holding in State v. Hall (May 22, 2026, unanimous) is the political argument for the findings section: the Court held that a five-year § 664A.5 order requires only the conviction, deferred judgment, or plea — no additional findings — and that notice plus the sentencing hearing satisfies due process. Only the Legislature can add a findings requirement. See lever §2.
5. Floor, then the Governor. After committee work, the bill needs floor votes in both chambers and the Governor’s signature (or a veto override). That is the ordinary path. Nothing on this site guarantees a hearing, a vote, or a signature.

Cheapest-first order of the six sections

File and argue them in this order. Detail and draft text live on the lever and bill pages.

1. Say on the face of a criminal order that the appeal survives expiry.
2. Require written findings before a five-year order (why Hall makes this a legislative ask).
3. Give the criminal order a hearing within fourteen days on request.
4. Put a fixed end on the pretrial order (thirty days unless extended after that hearing).
5. Candor on the petition, with a fee shift when candor fails.
6. Publish the annual counts.

Orders already signed

Reminder: every order already entered stays in force until the issuing court changes it. The draft bill’s applicability division leaves existing orders alone. Do not treat this page, or any page on this site, as permission to contact a protected person while an order forbids it.

Ask a legislator to sponsor Sponsor ask kit Draft bill text Six sections, cheapest first Public comment