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Iowa’s U.S. House delegation votes to end nation’s longest government shutdown
GOP members cite ‘senseless’ standoff, while Democrats, advocates say Iowans still face rising health care costs
Nov. 13, 2025 7:17 am, Updated: Nov. 13, 2025 7:35 am
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Iowa’s four Republican U.S. House members voted Wednesday to pass legislation to end the longest federal government shutdown in American history, backing a bipartisan agreement that reopens agencies after 43 days of furloughs, missed paychecks and deepening strain on services from airports to food assistance.
The House returned to Washington this week following nearly eight weeks away and approved the continuing resolution on a 222-209 vote; the Senate had already passed the bill. President Donald Trump signed the legislation, calling it a “very big victory.”
The compromise funds three annual spending bills — covering Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and the Legislative Branch — and extends the rest of government funding through Jan. 30, the Associated Press reported.
Republicans promised to hold a vote by mid-December on extending the expiring health care subsidies, though there is no guarantee it will pass, the AP reported.
The package also reverses the firing of federal workers by the Trump administration since the shutdown began, protects federal employees from further layoffs through January, and guarantees they will receive back pay once the shutdown ends. The full-year Agriculture Department funding ensures that key food-assistance programs such as SNAP and WIC will continue without threat of interruption through the remainder of the budget year. In addition, the legislation includes $203.5 million to bolster security for members of Congress and $28 million for enhanced security for Supreme Court justices.
The shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — ended after weeks of stalemate over expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits that help lower Americans’ insurance premiums. Democrats had insisted the bill include an extension of the enhanced subsidies. Republicans refused, saying that fight should be held separately.
Iowa Republicans blame Democrats for shutdown
Reps. Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn and Randy Feenstra all supported the bill, with each framing the shutdown as a crisis created by Democrats and exacerbated by political brinksmanship over health care.
Hinson, a Republican from Marion who represents northeast Iowa’s 2nd District, said in a statement that “for over 40 days, Democrats held government funding hostage — creating uncertainty for military families, forcing air safety officials to work without pay, and depleting WIC and SNAP for vulnerable families as ‘leverage.’”
“Iowans are fed up with D.C. dysfunction, and I fully support this commonsense bill to open the government following Chuck Schumer’s senseless shutdown antics,” she said. Now, we need to advance bipartisan solutions to ensure working families have affordable and accessible health care and lower costs across the board.“
In a separate video message, Hinson said she will work with anyone “on a bipartisan basis to find health care solutions for hardworking Iowans.”
The appropriations package also includes more than $7 million in community project funding Hinson secured for fire and EMS services, drinking water upgrades, public works and rural hospital expansions across her district.
Nunn, a Republican from Bondurant representing Iowa’s 3rd District, said the delay “was never a red or blue issue, this was about working together to open the government for the American people.”
“While I'm glad we finally ended the gridlock, my Democratic colleagues need to understand what their political gamesmanship cost Iowa,” Nunn said in a statement. “I spent this completely avoidable shutdown hearing directly from Iowans who were missing paychecks, losing access to services, and worrying about how to feed their families.”
He said he is “glad we finally ended the gridlock” and announced $3.5 million in federal investments he secured for local projects.
Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Ottumwa who represents Southeast Iowa’s 1st District, said she was “relieved this senseless shutdown is finally over.”
“For 43 days, Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats held our nation hostage,” she said, accusing them of blocking pay for federal workers and pushing “a $1.5 trillion wish list and taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants.”
Democrats’ proposed reversing provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to restore health coverage for lawfully present immigrants. The law narrowed Medicaid eligibility by excluding those granted asylum and parolees, but experts note it doesn’t expand access for people here illegally, who remain barred from federally funded comprehensive coverage. Under federal law, hospitals are required to provide emergency medical care regardless of immigration status, which Medicaid absorbs.
“I voted to keep the government open because I know the truth: in a shutdown, nobody wins and the American people lose,” Miller-Meeks added.
Gov. Kim Reynolds praised Republicans for passing the resolution, saying she was “grateful to the Senate and House Republicans and the Democrats who joined them,” though she said “Democrats allowed our military, federal employees, and low-income Americans to be used as political leverage.”
Shutdown fallout: food assistance delays, worker stress
The 43-day shutdown, which began Oct. 1, pressured families across Iowa.
SNAP and WIC benefits were delayed or temporarily frozen. Air traffic controllers, Transportation Security Administration agents and other essential personnel worked without pay. Federal contractors missed income they are unlikely to recover.
Miller-Meeks defended the GOP’s approach during a heated Monday town hall in Keosauqua, where a loudly critical crowd pressed her over Republicans’ tax — cut-and-spending law — dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — its Medicaid cuts, rising premiums, tariffs and the shutdown’s strain on working families.
She said the ACA’s core premium tax credits remain permanent, but criticized extending temporary COVID-era enhancements set to expire — which provide assistance to those making more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level. She contended that the law failed to deliver on promises to lower costs, noting premiums have continued to rise and criticized enhanced subsidies she said flow “directly to profitable insurance companies” rather than benefiting patients.
In response, attendees interrupted with shouts of “What’s the plan?”
She advocated for measures to reduce overall healthcare and insurance costs, including efforts to rein in pharmacy benefit managers — third-party companies that negotiate medication prices between health insurance companies, drug manufacturers and pharmacies — and expand health savings accounts to give people more control over healthcare spending. Many in the audience, however, remained frustrated.
Democrats, advocates say GOP failed to protect health care
Progressive groups and Democratic candidates said the shutdown exposed the stakes of rising health care costs in Iowa.
Fairness for Iowa, a coalition of labor and advocacy groups, said reopening the government “without extending health tax credits is a betrayal to Iowans dealing with the out-of-control costs Republicans keep causing.”
“Zach Nunn, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson and Randy Feenstra voted for tariffs raising the cost of food and basic goods, then allowed President Trump to block SNAP payments to hungry Iowans,” said Mazie Stilwell, Progress Iowa’s executive director.
The group emphasized that without renewed ACA subsidies, tens of thousands of Iowans will face “painful premium hikes next year.”
Abbey Paxton, owner of Storyhouse Bookpub in Des Moines, said in a statement the shutdown’s resolution “doesn’t fix the health care crisis small business owners like me are facing,” adding: “If they really want to help Iowans, they’ll make those health care tax credits permanent and stop putting big corporations ahead of working people.”
Iowa Democratic U.S. Senate candidates also used the shutdown to highlight the urgency of health care affordability. At a Nov. 9 Liberty and Justice Celebration in Des Moines, they urged their party to hold the line on extending ACA subsidies.
After news broke that Senate Democrats had agreed to allow a vote on the funding measure without subsidy extensions — in exchange for a future vote — state Sen. Zach Wahls, a Democrat from Coralville, said: “Senate Democrats shouldn’t cave — when working families’ health care is on the line, you fight.”
State Rep. Josh Turek, a Democrat from Council Bluffs, warned that without the subsidies, “125,000 Iowans will see their premiums double or triple.” Former Knoxville Chamber of Commerce leader Nathan Sage, who lives in Indianola, said he’s heard from Iowans who are “scared” and “angry” about the unaffordability of health care during his 99-county tour of the state.
After 43 days, what comes next?
While the government is now set to reopen, many of the underlying fights remain unresolved — especially over health care subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.
Republicans say those issues should be handled separately. Democrats and advocates argue the failure to address them now guarantees hardship for families already burdened by high costs.
For Iowa workers who went weeks without pay, families who lined up at food banks and those still unsure how they’ll afford health insurance in 2026, the end of the shutdown may feel more like a reprieve than a resolution.
As Hinson summed up in her statement, “Good things happen when we work together.” But whether Congress can do so on health care — the issue at the heart of the standoff — remains uncertain.
Lee Des Moines Bureau Chief Maya Marchel Hoff and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
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