Expect cancer, water quality talks in Legislature

Iowa’s legislative leaders said they predict to field more discussions on issues related to Iowans’ health in 2026. As the state has the second-highest cancer incident rate in the country, officials have said they plan to investigate why Iowa’s cancer rates are growing while national rates lower.

Some advocates say environmental factors — and problems caused by agricultural products — are behind some of these numbers. Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh was questioned by a voter at the Westside Conservative Club about why lawmakers have advanced legislation in several previous sessions to shield pesticide companies from certain lawsuits — specifically, in response to numerous lawsuits launched against Bayer, the manufacturer of RoundUp, which claim the product gave plaintiffs cancer.

Klimesh said the previous versions of the legislation did not stop people from suing companies like Bayer over claims like negligence or fraud, but over specific “failure to warn” claims related to pesticide labels issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“At the end of the day, they did not take away your rights to sue that company for cause in any way, shape or form,” Klimesh said. “All it simply said was you can’t sue them for not meeting a requirement the federal government won’t let them meet. At the end of the day, what concerns me is, if we allow that to continue, glyphosates will come in from China. What’s the recourse then? There’s no way you’re going to sue a Chinese company, right? That’s an impossible hurdle.”

House Speaker Pat Grassley said he believes there are “merits to wanting to make sure that these types of products are made here in this country — but not just this country, in our state.” He said while there was not enough support to move the bill forward last year, the 2026 session could be different.

“Not knowing what the future … looks like, if that’s something the caucus wants to move forward with, I think we’ll be open to that conversation,” Grassley said.

Another environmental issue that may be impacting Iowans’ health is water quality. Concerns about nitrate levels in Iowa’s waterways have heightened over the past year, as nitrate concentrations reached near record highs in Iowa rivers in 2025. Experts say data shows nitrate concentrations have increased in Iowa over the past decades.

House Minority Leader Brian Meyer said Iowa House Democrats plan to bring forward a legislative proposal to address high nitrate levels and increase water quality monitoring throughout the state.

While environmental advocates point to agricultural runoff as a contributor to Iowa’s growing cancer rates, some legislators have said other factors may be contributing. In November, Sen. Ken Rozenboom, R-Pella, said other states, such as Illinois, also would be seeing similarly high cancer rates if agricultural pollution was the driving force behind the state’s cancer rates.

“Once we have apparent solutions or answers, then we can start changing policy or making policy,” Rozenboom said. “But I think most of us more have more questions than answers yet.”

Klimesh said lawmakers also plan to continue to partner with institutions like the University of Iowa Health system “to make sure that they’re doing research, point us in the right direction where we can be helpful with that.”

Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner said as research is ongoing, the Legislature should focus on finding ways to “deal with some low-hanging fruit” and take steps to mitigate new instances of cancer.

“The cancer rates we’re seeing are result from exposures 20, 30 years ago; we can’t change that now,” Weiner said. “(But) we know we have high radon levels in the state. There are unregulated tanning beds there, you know, too many Iowans are probably using one form of tobacco or other. Again, we’ll be having conversations with our Republican colleagues, but I think everybody realizes this is an issue we have to deal with.”

Impact of leadership changes, special elections

Three of the top legislative leadership positions are held by people elected by their peers this year to lead their caucus for the first time – Klimesh leading Iowa Senate Republicans, Meyer leading Iowa House Democrats, and Rep. Bobby Kaufmann as the new House majority leader.

These changes come amid a shake-up heading into next year’s elections – former House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl is running for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District and former Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst is running in Iowa’s 3rd District. The former Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver announced he will not seek re-election as he continues treatment following a brain tumor diagnosis.

The session also will be Reynolds’ last term as governor, as she is not seeking re-election in 2026.

Grassley, who was elected House speaker in 2020, said he does not foresee major changes coming from the new leadership.

“I don’t want to say business as usual in a bad way, but I think you’re going to see the House, the Senate, the governor, continue to be able to work together to be able to find resolution to difficult issues,” Grassley said. “We’ve displayed that for the last several years, taking on tough issues, and so I don’t think any of that necessarily just changes because there’s different individuals in some of the certain areas.”

A number of special elections in 2025 have also changed the makeup of the Iowa Legislature. Iowa Senate Democrats gained two seats in special elections in the past year – Sen. Catelin Drey in Senate District 1 and Sen. Mike Zimmer in District 35, breaking Republicans’ supermajority control of the chamber.

There’s one more special election in the Iowa Senate left this year, scheduled for Dec. 30 to fill the seat left by Sen. Claire Celsi, who died in October after a battle with an undisclosed illness.

While Republicans still hold a majority in the Senate, breaking the supermajority means Democrats could exert more control in the process of appointing gubernatorial nominees, which require two-thirds majority approval. Weiner said while “there may not be a ton of appointments, there definitely will be some,” pointing to the new appointments to the Iowa Board of Regents.

She also said while two of the Senate special elections were called because of tragic circumstances – the deaths of two senators – the special election campaigns have allowed Senate Democrats to hear directly from voters about what they want from the Legislature.

“We’ve had the opportunity since the beginning of January through the end of December to talk to voters all over the state, or more specifically, to listen to voters all over the state and hear what their concerns are,” Weiner said. “… It’s great to see new faces, and it’s also been a year of loss.”

The legislative session is set to begin Jan. 12, 2026.