Iowa lawmakers are battling over the size of a budget increase for the Iowa Department of Corrections in the wake of a deadly attack at the Anamosa State Penitentiary two weeks ago.
House Republican lawmakers unveiled a proposed $21 million increase for the department Tuesday, calling it the largest in a decade. But union officials and House and Senate Democrats say it doesn't do enough to address understaffing, which they maintain contributed to the killings of an Anamosa correctional officer and a nurse on March 23.
The deaths of nurse Lorena Schulte, 50, and correctional officer Robert McFarland, 46, have injected arguments over law enforcement funding and public workers' collective bargaining rights into the Legislature's annual budget discussion in the final weeks of the legislative session.