DES MOINES - The wheels came off a bicycle safety measure Thursday, but lawmakers pressed ahead with an effort to tighten Iowa's open meetings-public records laws as a new crop of bills failed to clear another hurdle to remain eligible in the 2009 session.

Requirements to keep students in school until their 18th birthday and a plan for Iowa to join a multi-state national popular vote compact appeared to reach the end of their life for this session. Others, like a pair of bills to protect Iowans from sex offenders, were placed on legislative life-support.

After a Senate-passed bill to expand bicycle riders' road rights hit a road block in the House Transportation Committee, it was re-routed to Human Resources. It fared no better there.

With leaders talking of moving up adjournment from May 10 to as early as April 10, today is considered the second funnel deadline. It's a self-imposed deadline for bills to have won the approval of one chamber of the Legislature and a committee in the other chamber.

So proposals to set a school start date, require statewide writing assessments of students, study the impact of vehicle emissions on Iowa's air quality and countless other bills appear to have died. However, until the Legislature adjourns, it is premature to call any bill dead. Any bill can gain new life as an amendment to another bill.

Others, like the sex offender bills, will be placed on the unfinished business calendar to be kept alive. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Keith Kreiman, D-Bloomfield, said his bipartisan working group will meet Monday, but if no consensus emerges it will be up to leaders "to decide whether to pull the plug."

"It's alive and kicking at least until Monday," he said.

It may be up to leaders to keep alive a handful of labor-backed bills. Leaders are "still looking at labor bills," said Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, including choice-of-doctor, open-scope bargaining, fair share and prevailing wage.

In the House, the State Government Committee approved changes in the state open meetings-public records laws, but not without criticism. Rep. Vicki Lensing, D-Iowa City, conceded the bill, Senate File 777, isn't all she had hoped for, but was a step toward the openness she sought in rewriting the 30-year old public records-open meetings laws.

Rod Boshart and Charlotte Eby of the Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.

Contact James Lynch (319) 398-8375 or james.lynch@gazcomm.com.