Iowa Senate Bill SF22

Iowa 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/14/25
• Refer: 1/14/25
• Engrossed: 3/18/25
• Enrolled: 3/31/25
• Passed: 4/2/25

Caption

A bill for an act relating to the use of an electronic device in a voice-activated or hands-free mode while driving, providing penalties, and making penalties applicable. Effective date: 07/01/2025.

Summary

SF 22 revises Iowa’s distracted-driving laws to regulate the use of electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle, with a particular focus on allowing and defining voice-activated or hands-free use. The bill updates the definition of “electronic device,” clarifies what counts as “use,” and defines “voice-activated or hands-free mode” while expressly excluding certain activities from that exception, such as video calls, video streaming, gaming data, and reading electronic messages or notifications. The bill generally prohibits a driver from using a hand-held electronic communication device to write, send, or view an electronic message while driving, unless the vehicle is fully stopped off the traveled portion of the roadway or as far off as practicable. It preserves and expands several exceptions for public safety personnel, health care professionals in emergencies, emergency reporting, utility workers, transit personnel, amateur radio operators, transportation network company drivers in limited circumstances, and fleet management system users. It also makes violations subject to a simple misdemeanor and scheduled fine, and it changes related licensing, citation, and penalty provisions across multiple sections of the Iowa Code.

Impact

SF 22 amends multiple provisions in Chapters 321 and 707 of the Iowa Code, including driver licensing restrictions, citation rules, preemption of local ordinances, reckless-driving presumptions, and scheduled fines. It removes or revises prior references to hand-held mobile telephone use and replaces them with broader electronic-device language, while also making violations of the distracted-driving provisions non-moving violations and setting a $100 scheduled fine for section 321.276 violations. The bill also preempts county and municipal regulation in this area, ensuring statewide uniformity, and updates criminal-law provisions so that electronic-device use while driving can serve as prima facie evidence of reckless driving in certain serious-injury or death cases, subject to the bill’s hands-free exception and listed exemptions.

Sentiment

The overall sentiment appears strongly supportive, with the bill passing the Senate Judiciary Report 19-1 and later passing the Senate 46-1. The House vote was also decisive at 84-11, indicating broad bipartisan agreement on the need to update and strengthen distracted-driving rules. The narrow opposition in committee and on the floor suggests some disagreement, but not enough to prevent enactment.

Contention

The main points of contention appear to have centered on how far the law should go in restricting electronic-device use and how much discretion should remain for drivers and local governments. The failed amendment vote suggests there was at least one attempt to alter the bill’s approach, though the available record does not specify the amendment’s substance. Other likely areas of debate include the scope of the hands-free exception, the breadth of exemptions for certain workers and emergency situations, the decision to preempt local ordinances, and whether the bill’s penalties and reckless-driving presumptions are too strict or not strict enough.