Iowa Senate Republicans are seeking a $6.3 million budget increase for the Department of Corrections in the wake of the slaying of two prison workers, even as their House counterparts have proposed an increase of more than $20 million and Democrats are asking for much more.
House and Senate leaders have yet to negotiate final budget numbers, but funding for the Iowa Department of Corrections has become a point of controversy after Anamosa State Penitentiary nurse Lorena Schulte, 50, and correctional officer Robert McFarland, 46, were killed on March 23 in what authorities say was a failed inmate escape attempt by two inmates.
On Wednesday, the Senate s budget proposal advanced through subcommittee and committee hearings on party-line votes, making it eligible for floor debate. Senate Republicans had originally said they would seek a $4 million increase for the Department of Corrections, $2.3 million less than what the bill now includes. The proposal would add the money to the de