(DES MOINES, Iowa) -- Speaker Pro Tem of the Iowa House John Wills (R-Spirit Lake) delivered opening remarks to the Iowa House of Representatives today.  The following are his remarks, as prepared for delivery:

Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the House...  First, I want to thank you for your willingness to serve your fellow Iowans.  You have each made sacrifices to be here and it is an honor to serve with you in this Chamber.  It is an even greater honor to serve you, my colleagues, as the Speaker Pro Tem. 

I want to also thank my constituents back home who have provided me with the opportunity to represent them these past 6 years I am grateful for their faith in me to be able to represent their values. 

Before I go much further, there are some very special people that I must thank because they make tremendous sacrifices so that I can serve here in Des Moines.  They are my wife, Cami, and our three adult kids, Seth, Wes, and Mariah.  They deserve a huge thank you from me. 

The campaign of 2020 along with the many challenges of 2020 are behind us now.  Here in Iowa for the year 2020 we had COVID, Derecho, rioting, and drought and we move from that in 2021 to unity to pull through these challenges.  We must set aside our differences to do what is right for Iowan’s.  

Each of us in this chamber have different priorities and desires that both we and our constituents feel are important.  I look forward to working with each one of you to accomplish these priorities in a way that makes Iowan’s and each of our constituents be the priority.  There will be times that we don’t agree with one another, but we all understand that our shared goal is to make the lives of our fellow Iowans better.  My hope is that we are able serve the people of Iowa with a government that is smaller and smarter. 

Regardless where you stand on many of the issues that we will address this session, we move through those issues to govern our state for our citizens.  My goal as a legislator, as is many of you, is to wisely spend the taxpayer’s dollar, provide efficiency of government services, advance our freedoms and liberties like the 2^nd Amendment and life, and ensure our government works for the people, not the other way around.

May God bless each of you and the Great State of Iowa!  Thank you for your attention; it’s time to get on with 2021 and ensure Iowa becomes stronger in all ways and Iowa’s citizens become freer with their God-given liberties and freedoms.