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Iowa GOP House delegation presses Schumer to reopen government amid shutdown fallout
Schumer says GOP’s refusal to negotiate over health care is driving shutdown, warning Medicaid cuts and lost tax credits could spike premiums, close rural hospitals
Oct. 20, 2025 3:18 pm, Updated: Oct. 20, 2025 5:03 pm
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Iowa’s four Republican U.S. House members are calling on Senate Democrats to act quickly to end the federal government shutdown, warning that prolonged inaction is causing “real harm” to Iowans ranging from farmers and veterans to National Guard troops and families relying on food assistance.
In a letter sent to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Southeast Iowa U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks led her fellow GOP House members — Reps. Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn and Randy Feenstra — in urging Senate Democrats to pass what they described as a bipartisan continuing resolution that already cleared the House.
“The time for political brinkmanship has passed,” the lawmakers wrote. “The American people, and the people of Iowa, deserve a functioning government.”
The letter cites a wide range of effects of the shutdown, now in its 20th day, on Iowans. According to the lawmakers, more than 18,000 federal employees in Iowa have been furloughed or are working without pay. They said 62,000 women and children face service disruptions in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and 267,000 Iowans relying on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — including more than 100,000 children — could see delayed benefits.
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services warned Friday that November SNAP benefits may not be issued if the federal government remains shut down into next month. It cited a directive from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, which instructed all states not to issue November benefits without federal funding authorization.
SNAP supports roughly 131,000 Iowa households per month, with 32 percent of recipients being children. Iowa receives about $45 million in federal funding each month for SNAP benefits.
While funding remains available through October, November benefits are uncertain because the shutdown coincides with the start of a new fiscal year, meaning agencies lack ongoing spending authority.
“Iowa HHS has engaged food banks, pantry partners and community-based organizations to prepare to provide additional support to impacted Iowans,” the department said.
Iowa HHS is urging recipients to retain their SNAP cards and check for updates at hhs.iowa.gov/snap.
The letter from Iowa’s U.S. House members also points to impacts on 160,000 veterans unable to access regional offices, rural hospitals facing funding lapses, and more than 680,000 Iowa Medicare recipients at risk of losing access to telehealth services. Thousands of Iowa farmers, it said, also cannot reach closed U.S. Department of Agriculture offices for support.
“This shutdown is inflicting real harm on the people of Iowa: women, children, farmers, veterans, seniors, and service members,” the lawmakers wrote. “They cannot afford Washington’s political games.”
President Donald Trump’s move to fund military paychecks during the shutdown means Iowa National Guard service members — including those deployed overseas — will continue to be paid this month, Guard officials said last week.
Jackie Schmillen, the Guard’s public affairs director, said service members “will continue to receive pay during this pay period,” including deployed troops, Active Guard and Reserve personnel, and 19 Guard members serving under Title 32 orders supporting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Iowa.
The administration redirected Pentagon research and development funds to cover payroll before an Oct. 15 deadline when service members were expected to miss paychecks, the White House said. Nationally, about 1.3 million active-duty troops and hundreds of thousands of Guard members were at risk.
However, about 700 Iowa National Guard federal technicians — including roughly 600 dual-status uniformed technicians and 100 civilian employees — will not be paid until Congress passes a funding bill, Schmillen told The Gazette last week.
A bipartisan “Pay Our Troops Act” remains stalled in Congress.
Shutdown strains federal workers and travel system
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Monday that air travel disruptions could worsen as unpaid air traffic controllers look for ways to make ends meet, CBS News reported.
“They got a partial paycheck a week ago Tuesday. Their next paycheck comes a week from Tuesday, and in that paycheck there will be no dollars,” Duffy said on Fox & Friends.
Duffy cautioned that staff shortages could ripple through the nation’s air travel system as controllers facing financial strain turn to outside work or call off shifts. Air traffic controllers are considered "excepted" employees who work without pay during a funding lapse and receive back pay once the shutdown is over.
“And we have heard they are taking Uber jobs. They are doing DoorDash — figuring out ways to keep their families afloat … And, again, a lot of them are paycheck to paycheck,” he said.
Miller-Meeks, who led the letter, said Senate Democrats have “refused to support a clean, bipartisan plan” to fund the government.
Download: IA Delegation Shutdown Letter to Minority Leader Schumer.pdf
“The American people deserve a functioning government, not a Schumer Shutdown,” Miller-Meeks said in a statement. “ … We passed a bill that keeps essential services running, pays our troops, protects families, and allows us to finish the appropriations process responsibly. It’s time for the Senate to act and put people over politics.”
The House-passed resolution, which would fund the government for seven weeks at current spending levels, remains stalled in the Senate.
Shutdown on verge of tying second longest
The shutdown entered its 20th day Monday, with no agreement in sight. If it reaches 21 days, it will tie the 1995—96 shutdown under President Bill Clinton as the second longest in U.S. history. The longest shutdown, 35 days, occurred during President Trump's first term in late 2018 and into 2019.
Senate Democrats have refused to vote for a short-term funding bill, demanding Republicans extend enhanced premium tax credits that help people pay for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, and that they reverse cuts and changes to Medicaid passed earlier this year as part of Republicans’ sweeping tax cut and spending bill that the Congressional Budget Office says would cost millions of Americans their health insurance.
The Senate was set to reconvene Monday for an 11th vote on advancing the House-passed measure to reopen the government. The bill has repeatedly fallen short of the 60 votes needed to advance.
White House adviser Kevin Hassett said Trump may use “stronger measures to bring them to the table” if the stalemate persists, USA Today reported. Trump has used the shutdown to carry out mass layoffs of furloughed federal workers, describing it as an “unprecedented opportunity” to shrink the federal bureaucracy — a long-standing conservative goal — in addition to cutting funding to infrastructure projects in Democratic-led states.
Democrats push back
Democrats, meanwhile, accuse Iowa’s all-Republican House delegation of refusing to negotiate or return to Washington to help end the shutdown. In a statement earlier this month, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said GOP lawmakers “are treating this shutdown like a vacation,” criticizing them for attending political fundraisers rather than returning to Washington to help broker a deal.
“Randy Feenstra, Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn should be working with their Republican colleagues to find a deal to open the government and prevent a spike in Iowans’ health care premiums,” Hart said.
Schumer said Republicans have refused to negotiate over what he called a looming health care crisis at the heart of the stalemate, arguing Democrats are holding out to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits and reverse Medicaid cuts that he said would drive up premiums and threaten rural hospitals and nursing homes.
In an interview on The Checkup podcast, Schumer said notices of higher 2026 premiums are arriving this month and warned “tens of millions” could face unaffordable coverage without action.
He accused President Trump and GOP leaders of taking a “take-it-or-leave-it” approach, said the House should return to session to negotiate, and called for a leaders’ meeting with Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate GOP Leader John Thune, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Schumer also criticized Trump’s decision to shift Defense Department research funds to cover troop pay during the shutdown — calling it “probably not legal” absent congressional approval — and said Democrats support paying service members but want the shutdown ended through a negotiated deal.
He rejected GOP claims that ACA, Medicare or Medicaid funds go to undocumented immigrants, saying “not one dollar” of those programs is available to people here unlawfully, and urged Republicans to drop what he called “diversions” and negotiate on health care and funding.
Lee Des Moines Bureau Chief Maya Marchel Hoff contributed to this report.
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
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