A bill for an act relating to the state transportation commission, including by expanding the number of members and requiring certain members to represent and reside within specific regions of the state, and including effective date and applicability provisions.

2025-2026 Regular Session

Expands the State Transportation Commission from seven to nine members, adds two Iowa-resident at‑large seats, and requires regional residency for regional seats.

Subcommittee: Klimesh, Koelker, and Townsend.

#transportationcommission

Summary — HF 848 (Amendment H-1125)

Status & procedural history
- Introduced: March 7, 2025.
- Amendment H‑1125 filed March 18 and adopted March 19, 2025.
- Passed House March 19, 2025 (yeas 96, nays 0). Referred to Transportation; subcommittee: Klimesh, Koelker, Townsend (3/24/2025).
- Bill takes effect upon enactment (immediate effective date provision).

Purpose
- To restructure the State Transportation Commission (STC) by expanding its membership, adding at‑large seats, and imposing express residency requirements so certain commissioners must both represent and live in specified regions of the state.

Key provisions
- Commission size: increases STC membership from seven to nine members. The governor will appoint two additional at‑large members who must reside in Iowa.
- Political balance: the bill adjusts the statutory limit on how many commissioners may belong to the same political party (amendment changes the numeric cap consistent with the membership increase).
- Residency and automatic resignation:
- A commissioner appointed to represent a specified region must reside in that region; if they no longer reside there they are deemed to have resigned and the vacancy is filled per existing vacancy procedures (section 307A.4).
- An at‑large commissioner who ceases to reside in Iowa is deemed to have resigned and the vacancy is filled per section 307A.4.
- Transition and applicability:
- The Act applies only to commissioners appointed and confirmed on or after the Act’s effective date.
- The first two regular term appointments made on or after the effective date must be at‑large members. Subsequent appointments (third through ninth) are to represent regions 1 through 7, respectively — establishing an order for implementing the new regional representation structure.
- Regions: the bill references the statutory regional map for the STC (region 7 counties are enumerated in the bill text).

Who is affected
- Current and future STC members: the new rules apply to appointments made on or after the effective date (sitting members remain until their terms expire unless replaced by new appointments).
- Governor’s appointment power: adds two at‑large appointments.
- Residents and stakeholders: counties and regions gain guaranteed resident representation on the STC; statewide transportation policy may reflect broader geographic input.

Potential impacts
- Greater geographic representation on the STC by requiring regional residency for regional seats and adding two at‑large positions for statewide perspective.
- Possible change to partisan composition dynamics because both membership size and the statutory party cap are adjusted.
- Implementation is phased through the ordered sequence of appointments; immediate effect upon enactment means the ordering takes effect for the next regular term appointments.