Posted on

Take Action Today to Protect Nutrition Assistance for Young Children!

On Tuesday, February 24, House File 2716 was introduced in the Iowa House of Representatives and placed on the calendar. That means this bill could come to the House floor for a vote at any point, and we need you to reach out to your Representative in the House and urge them to vote NO on HF 2716!

HF 2716 (previously HSB 696) is a “welfare reform” bill that would take food assistance away from pregnant women, infants, and young children. It contains a number of harmful provisions we oppose, including:

Restricting eligibility for WIC based on citizenship status. WIC provides pregnant and post-partum mothers, infants, and young children with access to food assistance, breastfeeding support, and nutrition education.

HF 2716 would restrict people who are undocumented and certain legal humanitarian immigrants from accessing WIC. While states have long had the authority to restrict WIC eligibility based on citizenship status, no states currently have this policy in place. Iowa would be the only state in the nation to impose this requirement for WIC.

For every dollar invested in WIC, $2.48 is saved in medical, education, and productivity costs. WIC is fully federally funded. This bill would not save the state of Iowa any money—in fact, it would have the complete opposite effect.

WIC is a vitally important program for supporting the healthy development of young children in low-income families. It is an investment in our shared future. Access to proper nutrition in the first five years of life can have life-long impacts on physical and brain development. Our state legislators should not be voting to jeopardize young children’s futures.

Requiring 12 months of continuous residency in Iowa to qualify for public assistance programs. This provision is in direct violation of federal laws that prohibit states from imposing “durational residency requirements” for SNAP (7 CFR 273.3(a)) and WIC (7 CFR 246.7(c)(i)).

The bill also redefines public assistance programs in Iowa to include Child Care Assistance and WIC alongside SNAP, Medicaid, Hawk-i, and the Family Investment Program (TANF). Division III of the bill seeks to allow the state to ask applicants to public assistance programs how long they’ve been in Iowa and their “reasons for being in the state.”

Requesting a waiver from USDA to allow Iowa HHS to expunge SNAP benefits from EBT accounts after three months of inactivity “or of benefits remaining.” Current policy allows states to expunge SNAP benefits after nine months of EBT account inactivity, and we do not see any good reason to change this. If Iowa were granted this waiver by USDA, it would be the only state in the nation to have this policy in place.

Don’t wait – take action today by contacting your House Representative and urging them to vote NO on HF 2716! We encourage you to make your message personal and local – let them know why it matters to you and your community. If you need some help, feel free to borrow some of the language below in developing your message.

Hello Representative,

I am a constituent and am contacting you today to urge you to vote NO on HF 2716. This bill would create additional restrictions for SNAP and WIC. At a time when food pantries are serving record numbers of Iowans, and grocery prices have risen nearly 30% in the past 5 years, we should be reducing barriers to food assistance, not creating new ones. 

I ask that you lead with compassion and reject this attempt to take vital nutrition assistance away from children in our community. 

Sincerely, 

[Your Name]

Posted on

The Friday Before First Funnel

It’s the Friday before First Funnel. This week has seen a flurry of activity on bills in Des Moines related to food insecurity, SNAP, WIC, and Summer EBT. Some bad. Some good. Next week will be extremely consequential at the statehouse, and contacting your State Representative and Senator is crucial right now. We encourage you to keep reading to learn more, but here’s the most important action you can take:

Contact members of the House and Senate Health and Human Services Committees (especially if you’re a constituent) and ask them to:

  1. Don’t take food away from pregnant women, babies, and young children by imposing additional eligibility restrictions for WIC.

  2. Oppose efforts to codify food restrictions for SNAP and Summer EBT.

  3. Support a $1 million appropriation for Double Up Food Bucks.

Keep it short, respectful, and let them know why this matters to you and your community.

Wait, hold up a second. First funnel? If you’re not familiar with the phrase, don’t worry. Iowa’s state legislative process isn’t always the easiest to understand. But we’ll guide you through what it means, and what meaningful actions you can take in the next few days to help prevent children from losing access to critical nutrition programs.

House Nutrition Restriction Bills Advance Out of Subcommittees

On Monday, HSB 694 and HSB 696 were introduced, as we wrote about here. Subcommittee meetings for the bills were held on Wednesday (HSB 696) and Thursday (HSB 694). Both bills passed out of subcommittee on 2-1 party-line votes.

HSB 694 is the Governor’s public health bill, and Section 16 seeks to create a continuous food restriction waiver for SNAP and Summer EBT. It would give authority to the Iowa HHS Director, or their “designee,” to determine what is “healthy food” allowable for purchase SNAP and Summer EBT. It also ties the state’s participation in Summer EBT, and seems to also require the state to have a healthy food waiver in place to participate in SNAP—though there’s contradictory language about ensuring “the provision of SNAP benefits to recipients is uninterrupted.”

HSB 696 is a “welfare reform” bill introduced by Rep. Austin Harris, chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee.There are some problematic pieces in Division I (namely Sections 4 and 6), but the most concerning elements are Sections 12 and 15.

  • Section 12 would require 12-months residency to qualify for public assistance programs, which goes against federal law for SNAP, WIC, and Medicaid. It would allow Iowa HHS to ask applicants how long they’ve been in Iowa and their “reasons for being in the state.”
  • Section 15 (Division IV) would restrict WIC eligibility to citizens and “qualified aliens.” This would take food away from pregnant women, infants, and children at no savings whatsoever to the state, just to make a political point. Proper nutrition is critical for young bodies and minds to grow and develop. Taking formula and food away from mothers and their babies is just plain cruel.

We encourage you to reach out to all members of the House Health and Human Services Committee and encourage them to strike Section 16 from HSB 694 and strike Sections 12 and 15 from HSB 696.

SNAP Bills Show Up in the Senate

This week also saw the introduction of a number of related bills in the Iowa Senate. SSB 3130 is the Governor’s bill, and companion to HSB 694. IHC opposes it for the same reason: Section 16 codifies food restrictions for SNAP and Summer EBT. A subcommittee meeting has not yet been scheduled.

While we have not yet seen a companion bill introduced for HSB 696, Sen. Kara Warme, Chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, did introduce SSB 3140. Thankfully, this bill does not change eligibility for WIC, but it still does contain a concerning provision that would require the state to report the citizenship status of all members of a SNAP household to USDA, even those not applying for benefits. This could prevent mixed-status households from applying for SNAP out of fear for their families’ safety.

On Thursday, Sen. Westrich introduced a similar, more narrow bill, SF 2310, which simply requires the state to use the SAVE system to verify immigration status for public assistance programs in the state. This is already current practice for SNAP in Iowa. But we’ve also seen how the Department of Homeland Security has overhauled SAVE under the Trump administration in a way that has the potential for abuse.

Sen. Warme also introduced multiple bills that seem to split up the Governor’s public health bill. SSB 3139 contains the same Section 16, which IHC opposes, and strips out the Governor’s proposed tobacco and hemp tax increase.

Instead, the smoking tax increase is in SSB 3145, which also contains a $1 million appropriation for Double Up Food Bucks. IHC is registered in support of SSB 3145, as well as SF 2027, a Double Up Food Bucks bill introduced at the start of session by Sen. Dawson.

Some Other Good News

In addition to some positive indications on legislation supporting Double Up Food Bucks, we’ve also seen The Iowa Farm Act advance out of subcommittees in the House and Senate. This legislation was introduced by the Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) Secretary Mike Naig. It includes making the Choose Iowa Farm to School Food Purchasing Program permanent, a priority for the Iowa Hunger Coalition and our partners at the Iowa Food System Coalition.

  • Contact members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees and encourage them to support the Choose Iowa provisions in the Iowa Farm Act, and to make sure they’re funded in the budget, too!

A few other good bills were also introduced this week by House Democrats: HF 2394 would create a $1 million matching fund for food banks and emergency food providers, and HF 2421, which would direct the state to use reserve funds to issue SNAP benefits in an event of a government shutdown and delayed issuance of SNAP benefits, like we saw in November 2025. Unfortunately, because both of these bills were introduced by Democrats, they have a slim chance of even getting a subcommittee meeting scheduled, much less a vote on the floor.

Next week is First Funnel, where most bills need to pass out of their Committee by the end of the week or be considered “dead.” This can be a make-or-break moment for bills. You can expect to see a flurry of activity, and we should have a better sense next week where we need to focus our attention next.

If you have any questions about these bills, or others you think we should be paying attention to, feel free to reach out at iowahungercoalition@gmail.com.

Thank you for all your ongoing advocacy!

Posted on

Fresh Attacks on Food Security at the Iowa Statehouse

On Monday, February 9, two bills were introduced in the Iowa legislature that threaten the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), other nutrition programs, and the hundreds of thousands of Iowans who rely on them to help feed their families.

These bills are expected to move very quickly, with subcommittee meetings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. Both bills would need to pass out of subcommittee and through the full House Health & Human Services Committee by next Friday, February 20 (known as the First Funnel), in order to remain eligible for debate this session. The Iowa Hunger Coalition is registered against both bills.

We encourage you to learn more about these bills below, and reach out to all members of the House HHS Committee, as well as specific subcommittee members, to tell them to oppose HSB 694 and HSB 696!

Before we dive into all the details of these bad bills, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:

But despite all of this, our Governor and certain state legislators have decided that they want to make it harder for low-income Iowans to access and use their SNAP benefits.

HSB 694: The Governor’s Attempt to Codify SNAP Restrictions

House Study Bill 694 is a Governor bill that has been assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee. A subcommittee of Rep. Austin Harris, Rep. Tom Jeneary, and Rep. Austin Baeth is scheduled to meet this Thursday, February 12, at 12:00pm in Room 103.

Subcommittee meetings are typically the only opportunity to provide public testimony on a bill. Per House rules, you can watch the subcommittee meeting online, but are not allowed to testify remotely (which differs from the Senate). If you attend the subcommittee in person to speak, please know that your comments may be limited to two minutes by the Chair.

We encourage you to contact the subcommittee members below directly and urge them to oppose HSB 694! You can also submit public comments online.

HSB 694 is a 56-page bill that includes a number of the Governor’s priorities, including requiring continuing education in nutrition for physicians and raising the cigarette, vapor, and hemp taxes. It also includes a division that seeks to codify (and potentially expand) Iowa’s SNAP restrictions.

Division III ties Iowa’s participation in both SNAP and Summer EBT to its “healthy food” waiver, as defined by “the director or the director’s designee.” 

To reiterate: this bill would allow the Iowa HHS Director, or someone of their choosing, to determine what is considered “healthy” foods (based solely on vibes), and if the USDA doesn’t agree, Iowa would stop participating in Summer EBT, and potentially even in SNAP entirely.

It’s a bit unclear. Section 16 of the bill states that Iowa shall “continuously maintain participation in SNAP…by administering the program in accordance with guidelines approved…that eligible foods…are healthy foods as defined by the director or the director’s designee.” It also states that Iowa shall “ensure that the provision of SNAP benefits to recipients is uninterrupted.” So, if Iowa requests a waiver and it’s denied by USDA, what would happen?

Ultimately, neither the Iowa legislature, nor the Director of Iowa HHS, has the authority to determine what qualifies as eligible foods for SNAP. 

We’ve seen how Iowa’s SNAP restriction waiver is playing out, and the last thing our legislature should be doing is making these restrictions permanent. Not only are they doing that, but they’re also giving free reign to future administrations to make changes as they see fit. We should be making public policy based on evidence, not ideology.

HSB 696: A Suite of Further Restrictions and Waivers

House Study Bill 696 was introduced on Monday by Rep. Austin Harris, who is the Chair of the House Health & Human Services Committee. The bill’s subcommittee of Rep. Harris, Rep. Chad Ingels, and Rep. Ross Wilburn is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, February 11, at 12:30pm in Room 103 of the Iowa State Capitol. You can watch the subcommittee meeting online, but are not allowed to testify remotely.

We encourage you to contact the subcommittee members below directly and urge them to oppose HSB 696! You can also submit public comments online.

Division I of the bill contains a number of provisions related to SNAP, some of them harmful, others harmless. In total, the bill would request five separate waivers from USDA related to SNAP administration in Iowa.

  • Section 1 would require Iowa HHS to produce a quarterly report on the state’s payment error rate (PER) for SNAP. State legislators are paying extra attention to the PER due to a provision in HR1 that could leave Iowa on the hook for upwards of $26 million if our PER exceeds 6%. Thankfully, right now Iowa’s payment error rate for SNAP is 5.3%. IHC is supportive of this provision.
  • Section 2 would direct the state to request a waiver from USDA to not count the income of working high schoolers when calculating a household’s SNAP benefits. We believe this could be a positive change, and support it, though there’s no guarantee USDA FNS would grant this waiver.

  • Section 3 would request a waiver to consider a number of data sources “verified upon receipt” when processing SNAP applications, including The Work Number and a number of other third-party data sources that could produce inaccurate, untimely, or questionable data. This goes against long-standing USDA guidance on the use of third-party data sources and “unclear information.” We are concerned this could lead to people having their SNAP benefits reduced or terminated inaccurately, and are opposed to this section.

  • Section 4 would request a waiver to allow Iowa HHS to expunge household benefits after “three months or 91 days of inactivity, or of benefits remaining, on the electronic benefit account.” Current policy allows states to expunge benefits after nine months. We are extremely concerned with this provision and how it would strip SNAP benefits away from individuals and families who earned them.
  • Section 5 would request a waiver to exclude client errors from the payment error rate and instead only use agency-caused errors. This would reduce Iowa’s payment error rate, potentially keeping the state from cost-sharing on benefits in the future. However, it’s unclear that USDA would grant this waiver to Iowa.

  • Section 6 would request a waiver to require additional eligibility information to be submitted for an application to “be considered complete.” This would require applicants to list the citizenship status and verify the identity of all members of the households, even those who are not applying for benefits. This could discourage mixed-status households from applying for benefits, and we oppose it.

Division III makes a few alarming changes to public assistance programs in the state, including requiring as a condition of participation “a statement from the applicant attesting to the applicant’s reasons for being in the state and length of residency within the state” and a copy of the applicant’s most recent Iowa income tax return. This division would also require the state to use the controversial SAVE system to verify citizenship status for all public assistance applicants in Iowa.

Division IV would change eligibility requirements for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Children, and Infants (WIC). Currently, WIC does not restrict eligibility based on citizenship status. This provision would ban undocumented women, infants, and children from participating in WIC. It’s unclear how many families would be negatively impacted by this change.

Division V would direct Iowa HHS to produce an annual report on public assistance fraud, including reporting the number of cases investigated, case outcomes, overpayment dollars identified, amount of cost avoidance, and actual dollars recovered. All of these metrics are already available through the Iowa Department of Inspections, Licensing, and Appeals (DIAL)’s annual report.

Of course, the real issue of SNAP fraud – benefit theft and skimming – is still going unaddressed with this bill, and there are not requirements for Iowa HHS to report on the number of Iowans who have had their SNAP benefits stolen and the total amount of benefits stolen from Iowans.

We encourage you to reach out to all members of the House Health and Human Resources Committee and encourage them to vote NO on HSB 694 and HSB 696!