Ethics complaints over GOP votes for mask mandate ban dismissed

DES MOINES — An Iowa Senate committee has dismissed complaints against Republican senators who voted to ban schools from requiring masks.

Six Iowans accused GOP senators of violating Senate ethics rules by backing a ban that could put medically vulnerable students, staff and families at greater risk of getting Covid.

Senate Republicans, in a written response, said voting for a bill isn’t an ethics violation. Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque who voted against the bill, said she’s sympathetic to the concerns of parents, but Jochum said the Senate Ethics Committee isn’t the proper venue to resolve the issue.

“Unfortunately I believe the remedy really is in a court of law,” Jochum said.

On Monday, a judge issued a temporary order that lets school districts require face masks be worn on school grounds until the lawsuit challenging Iowa’s ban on mask mandates is decided.