SF 397 Iowa Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

A bill for an act relating to assaults, including assaults on persons engaged in certain occupations and inmate assaults on department of corrections employees, and providing penalties.

This bill increases penalties for individuals who commit assaults against specific professionals, including peace officers, correctional staff, healthcare providers, firefighters, and certain state employees. It upgrades assaults intended to inflict serious injury or involving a dangerous weapon from a Class D to a Class C felony. Additionally, assaults causing bodily injury or mental illness against these professionals are elevated from an aggravated misdemeanor to a Class D felony. Other assaults, such as those causing contact with saliva, are reclassified from a serious to an aggravated misdemeanor, and carry a mandatory minimum 7-day jail sentence that cannot be suspended.
Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Mar 2025
House Passage
Mar 2025
Signed into Law
Apr 2025
Introduced Feb 20, 2025 Signed Apr 18, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

Enrolled Enrolled with Governor's Action · 3 edits · Apr 18, 2025
MINOR
The bill was formatted from a line-by-line legislative markup into a clean, readable text format. The substantive content of the assault penalties remains unchanged, including protections for first responders and inmates assaulting corrections staff.
TECHNICAL

Converted line-by-line legislative markup into standard paragraph format for readability.

Removed page headers, signatures, and certification language that were part of the enrolled document formatting.

Reorganized text structure to match standard bill formatting conventions.

Floor votes · Senate Mar 10, 2025 · House Mar 27, 2025

How they voted

460
Passed · 3 other
Total votes 49
Mar 10, 2025
D Democratic16
14 Yea 2
87% Yea
R Republican33
32 Yea 1
96% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
16
Key actions
4
Committee
1
Amendments
1
Apr 18, 2025
Signed into law
Signed by Governor.
upper
Mar 27, 2025
Lower · Passed
Passed House, yeas 91, nays 2.
lower
Mar 26, 2025
Introduced
Amendment H-1211 filed.
lower
Mar 10, 2025
Upper · Passed
Passed Senate, yeas 47, nays 0.
upper
Feb 20, 2025
Upper · Passed
Committee report, approving bill.
upper
Feb 20, 2025
Introduced
Introduced, placed on calendar.
upper
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.