This morning, both HF 613 and SF 494 advanced out of House Appropriations Subcommittees on 3-2 party-line votes. Each of these subcommittee meetings were limited to 15 minutes. The chair of both subcommittees told advocates they were only to speak about the appropriations aspects of these bills (which is a little hard to do when we don’t yet have a fiscal note for HF 613).
We had a packed room full of advocates speaking out against these bills and sharing how they would harm Iowans. Unfortunately, those concerns fell on some deaf ears. The fact is these bills would increase administrative costs by millions of dollars and add hundreds of employees to the payroll at HHS, all in an effort to remove Iowans from public assistance programs. And the savings to the state for removing people from SNAP? Zero. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
Thank you to all our advocates for everything you are doing to fight back against these harmful bills. Your voices are so vital to this work, and we truly can’t thank you enough.
It’s unusual that we saw subcommittees for both HF 613 (the House’s version of the bill) and SF 494 (the Senate version, which already passed the Senate). And it’s definitely not a good sign. House Republicans may be keeping their options open by advancing both bills. There may still be some disagreement on which bill to pursue in the House. We simply don’t know at this point.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Both of these bills will now head to the full House Appropriations Committee for consideration. We have heard the Appropriations Committee may vote on one or both of these bills as early as Thursday.
Please contact the members of the House Appropriations Committee below and ask them to vote NO on HF 613 and SF 494.
- Rep. Gary Mohr (Chair) – gary.mohr@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Taylor Collins (Vice Chair) – taylor.collins@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Timi Brown-Powers (Ranking Member) – timi.brown-powers@legis.iowa.
gov - Rep. Jerome Amos Jr. – jerome.amosjr@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Sean Bagniewski – sean.bagniewski@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Michael Bergan – michael.bergan@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Jacob Bossman – jacob.bossman@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Tracy Ehlert – tracy.ehlert@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Joel Fry – joel.fry@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Martin Graber – martin.graber@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Steven Holt – steven.holt@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Shannon Latham – shannon.latham@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Brian Lohse – brian.lohse@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Heather Matson – heather.matson@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Ann Meyer – ann.meyer@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Norlin Mommsen – norlin.mommsen@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Carter Nordman – carter.nordman@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Sami Scheetz – sami.scheetz@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Ray Sorensen – ray.sorensen@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Henry Stone – henry.stone@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell – beth.wessel-kroeschell@legis.
iowa.gov - Rep. Ross Wilburn – ross.wilburn@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Devon Wood – devon.wood@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. David Young – david.young@legis.iowa.gov
- Rep. Adam Zabner – adam.zabner@legis.iowa.gov
Thank you for your ongoing advocacy!