On Jan. 29, more than 75 high school students from around the state assembled at the Iowa Capitol along with Youth and Shelter Services to promote a bill making it mandatory for kegs to be registered to their purchasers in an effort to hold adults accountable for providing alcohol to minors. Fifty-one days after House File 65 was introduced to the state Legislature, it was passed in significant majority Wednesday.

“The keg registration bill passed out of the House 88-10 and is headed to the Senate,” said Sarah-Jane Mason, senior in journalism and mass communication and intern at YSS.

The bill, which was met with some resistance from ISU students, was advocated by YSS as well as Hy-Vee Inc., the largest distributor of kegs in the state, Rep. Mike Reasoner and the three Lamoni High School students who drafted the bill. George Belitsos, CEO of YSS, was excited to see the bill’s progression.

“We are very happy today.” Belitsos said. “We took the lead, and I am very proud of that.”

“We expect that the Senate will pass it with bipartisan support,” Belitsos said.

Lobbying for support of the statewide litigation will continue.

“We have about 200 youth who will be urging their senators to pass it,” Belitsos said.If passed, Iowa will become the 32nd state to have a statewide beer keg registration law.

“It’s about time Iowa passed this bill,” Belitsos said.

Belitsos said the organization and its supporters have been working for approximately four years to pass the legislation, which was largely youth-driven, on the state level. They have gone county to county to advocate and educate for their cause.

“We started a snowball effect to get over 20 counties to pass it,” Belitsos said. “Boone and Polk County passed it shortly after Story County.”

The countersupport stance encompassed the idea that if such enforcement were initiated, young people might switch from drinking beer to drinking hard liquor.

“This has not proven to be true in other states,” Belitsos said of the opposition. “People who drink keg beer tend to drink until the keg is empty, whereas it is proven to be true that they don’t drink as much when drinking from cans.”

The bill now moves to the Iowa Senate to be discussed and considered for enactment.