Republicans are causing food and water insecurity

Every day the government shutdown continues, Congressional Republicans are making Iowans hungry, sick, and broke.

Unsatisfied by July cuts to school lunches and food assistance for struggling families, the GOP shutdown will snatch formula from babies’ bottles. USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) will run out of funding within a week, threatening benefit cuts for almost 60,000 Iowa infants, children and mothers.

Our drinking water, already polluted by factory farm nitrates and pesticides, is also at risk. Seventy-four percent of Iowa’s federally inspected water treatment facilities have had violations in the last three years. As Iowans struggle through an industrial agriculture water pollution crisis, we need effective water treatment systems more than ever. Instead, under the shutdown, EPA has stopped all drinking water and wastewater facility inspections.

Farmer payments are also on the line. Just as Iowa farmers begin a harvest of uncertainty thanks to Trump’s deranged tariff war, the GOP shutdown has shuttered USDA offices in every county. Several USDA programs will halt financial assistance for farmers, including Conservation Reserve Program payments. Over 1 million acres in Iowa are part of the Conservation Reserve Program — any farmers relying on rental payments for their land in the program will go without.

Farmers and families deserve a functioning federal government. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley must work with Senate Democrats to pass a spending bill that protects safe food and clean water from rescissions, not further destroy the programs designed to keep us safe.

Jennifer Breon

Iowa City