Iowa legislators have drafted a bill which calls upon them to mind their manners when foreign visitors stop by the statehouse. The Iowa House has approved a bill which sets up a special protocol when the legislature has international visitors. Representative Chuck Gipp, a republican from Decorah, says little things mean alot when it comes to hosting a foreign dignitary. He says the bill comes after a foreign visitor was dropped off at the garbage enterance to the capital.During that same visit, legislators in the House and Senate failed to perk up at attention when Taiwan’s Ambassador to the United States was introduced. Some lawmakers talked on their telephones and carried on conversations, ignoring the Ambassador. It wasn’t any better when Gipp talked about the bill in the House yesterday. Representative Danny Carroll of Grinnell had to remind legislators to mind their manners. He said they were talking too loudly.The bill also calls for legislators who visit other countries to get special sensititivity training about local customs. Gipp nearly committed an international faux pas (foh paw) during a September trip to an elementary school in Shanghai, China. Gifts the legislators were taking with them had the insignia of the government of Taiwan, a country that has a strained relationship with China.Gipp says he and another legislator ripped the packages open and discarded the offending plastic wrap before they arrived at the school.
