How much for a bottom-less cup of coffee in the Iowa House of Representatives? House leaders have decided the going rate this year will be $25 per person. The money raised from members of the House or their staff who are coffee drinkers will hopefully replace the $2,200 budgeted for coffee in the Iowa House this year.
As one person put it — it’s part of the effort to find every last drop of savings in the state budget. House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha supports the fee, but doesn’t plan to pay it.
“You know, I’m not a coffee drinker,” Paulsen says. “I have a selection of Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Sunkist Orange and Diet Sunkist Lemonade.” Paulsen jokes that he’d pay $25 for a bottomless mug of Mountain Dew.
Statehouse reporters are bringing in their own coffee and using a “French press” to make their own coffee.