DES MOINES – Iowa lawmakers appear to have little appetite for further restrictions on cellphone use while driving.

Iowa law bans drivers from texting while driving, but federal safety officials have suggested an outright ban on cellphone use.

“That proposal would face a pretty strong challenge in the House to pass,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines.

It’s not that lawmakers don’t recognize that distracted driving is a problem, but Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said any further restriction this year “is a bit of a long shot.”

He would defer to the Department of Public Safety to recommend “what makes sense and is enforceable.”

Gov. Terry Branstad prefers looking at distracted driving broadly.

“It could be eating, putting on makeup, a lot of other things, reading a book while you’re driving — there are a lot of things that could be distractions,” he said. “I think going so far as banning cellphones while driving would be a pretty drastic step.”

Transportation Committee member Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, doubts there will be changes made this year but said the state may be forced to toughen its law.

“Federal guidelines are non-binding, but they’re signaling to the states that they want some action here,” Danielson said.

He suspects the federal government is signaling that down the road there will be a relationship between federal funding and state laws addressing cellphone use in distracted driving. That’s the approach the federal government has used on other issues, such as seat belt use and operating while intoxicated laws.

“I think an outright ban is too much at this point … too big of a step right now,” Danielson said. However, he’s open to looking at Iowa’s distracted driving law, which would encompass cellphone usage.

“Probably the best path is to do it through the distracted driving law,” he said. “If (cellphone use) is a direct cause of an accident, people don’t get off scot-free.”

(The Gazette Des Moines Bureau’s Rod Boshart contributed to this report.)