Trump administration ordered partial SNAP payments for November. What does that mean for Iowa families?

The federal government shutdown reached its 36th day Wednesday, breaking the record as the longest in U.S. history and leaving millions of Americans — including thousands of Iowans — grappling with frozen paychecks, delayed flights and slashed food aid.

President Donald Trump has refused to negotiate with Democrats until they agree to reopen the government, and the administration’s plan to issue partial food assistance benefits for the month of November has hunger relief advocates warning that Iowa families could see their food assistance cut in half or eliminated entirely.

While lawmakers haven't arrived at a negotiation over a Democratic push to extend expiring Affordable Care Act health care subsidies, Republican Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said this week that Senate lawmakers are having bipartisan conversations over reopening the government and he is seeing “great progress” being made from the talks.

SNAP aid uncertainty deepens in Iowa

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According to the Iowa Hunger Coalition, the administration’s plan to issue 50 percent partial benefits for November leaves “more questions than answers.” Only households receiving the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit will get half their usual amount, the coalition said. Others will receive far less — or nothing at all.

Two federal court rulings late last week forced the Trump administration to tap emergency SNAP contingency funds to pay partial food assistance benefits for November — but the plan has created confusion and alarm among state officials and hunger advocates.

In a sworn court filing Monday, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food and Nutrition Services Patrick Penn outlined the administration’s plan to draw about $4.65 billion from the contingency fund to cover 50 percent of eligible households’ current SNAP allotments, after reserving $450 million for administrative costs. The filing acknowledged that the changes could take weeks or even months for states to implement, given that some benefit systems are “decades old” and may require manual recalculations that risk “payment errors and significant delays.”

Download: gov.uscourts.rid.60750.21.1.pdf

U.S. Department of Agriculture guidance issued Tuesday instructs states to calculate reduced benefits by first cutting the maximum allotment for each household size in half, then subtracting 30 percent of the household’s net income from that reduced amount.

Download: SNAP November 2025 Benefit Guidance.pdf

In practical terms, the Iowa Hunger Coalition said, only households already receiving the maximum SNAP benefit will receive half their usual amount. Most others will see substantially less — and those who typically receive less than half the maximum benefit will receive nothing at all, except for a minimum payment of $12 for some single-person and two-person households, said Luke Elzinga, board chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition.

Download: SNAP November 2025 Benefit Guidance_Reduction_Tables.pdf

Elzinga said roughly two-thirds of Iowa’s roughly 130,000 SNAP households could experience losses greater than 50 percent. About 28.8 percent of Iowa SNAP households received the maximum benefit in fiscal 2023, according to the USDA.

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The coalition’s analysis shows how severe the impact could be. A single person who previously received $155 in monthly benefits will now receive only $12. A family of five who typically received $597 in SNAP benefits will receive only $6 this month, as they do not qualify for the minimum benefit. A three-person household that usually gets $380 per month will receive no partial benefits for November, according to the anti-hunger group.

Elzinga said the timeline for issuing partial November benefits remains uncertain. Recalculating benefits under the new formula could take weeks, he said, and even once processed, “it’ll take a few days for them to get issued.”

Iowa Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Alex Murphy said HHS is working closely with the Department of Management’s Division of Information Technology to implement the necessary calculations.

“The maximum benefit amount for each household is being reduced for November — this is a temporary change to meet the current requirement of partial benefits for November,” Murphy said in a statement to The Gazette. “Each household’s benefit must be manually re-calculated before our SNAP contractor can load the funds onto EBT cards. The department is still working on a timeline for when benefits will be loaded onto cards.”

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He said Iowa HHS remains committed to supporting Iowans and ensuring timely access to food assistance.

Elzinga urged immediate congressional action to restore regular SNAP funding, warning that the partial-benefit plan “just has a lot of question marks” and risks confusion for families.

“This honestly feels like the anvil that broke the camel’s back,” Elzinga said. “We’ve got people who are going without food, who are turning to food pantries that are absolutely swamped … and despite the court order about partial benefits, nothing has changed on the ground.”

Hinson: ‘Democrats voted to turn off the SNAP benefits’

Asked whether Congress should pass a stand-alone measure to restore SNAP funding, Iowa U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion who is running for U.S. Senate, told reporters Wednesday, “I think the best way to ensure people get SNAP benefits is for Democrats to reopen the government.”

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“Democrats voted to turn off the SNAP benefits for the most vulnerable, and they have openly admitted that they want to use vulnerable Americans as leverage,” she continued. “This is not a political game. Iowans and Americans deserve better here, and it is time for Democrats to come to the table and reopen the government.”

Democrats contend Republicans are holding food aid hostage in the shutdown fight, blocking their efforts to pass stand-alone, expedited bills to restore SNAP benefits during the closure. Republicans called the resolution “meaningless” and blamed Democrats for repeatedly voting down a GOP stopgap funding bill, which included money for SNAP.

Senate Democrats argue the Trump administration could have kept payments flowing using contingency funds, as past administrations did, but chose not to. Democrats also note the GOP’s tax-and-spending plan would cut an estimated $187 billion from SNAP over 10 years by expanding work rules and narrowing eligibility. Senate Democrats insist any funding deal include renewed ACA subsidies to prevent premium hikes, saying both food aid and health care must be addressed together.

Iowa lawmakers seeing bipartisan conversations taking place

During a radio town hall on conservative radio host Simon Conway’s show Tuesday night, Republican Iowa U.S. Rep Mariannette Miller-Meeks said conversations between congressional lawmakers and the Trump administration are making her “hopeful” that the federal government will reopen soon.

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Miller-Meeks, who joined the call from Washington, D.C., added that she believes the extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act in the continuing resolution proposed by Democrats is a point “beyond negotiation.”

“There are conversations between senators, you know, regular senators, not necessarily Sen. Schumer, but those conversations are going on,” Miller-Meeks said. “Asking for $1.5 trillion in new spending in seven weeks, I think, is something that for many Republicans is not a serious negotiation, but there are conversations going on and having said that, yes, I am hopeful that, given the conversations going on … that the government will open soon.”

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Grassley told reporters during a press call Wednesday afternoon that he is seeing “multi-faceted” conversations between Republicans and Democrats over reopening the government. Grassley said Senate lawmakers are working out a pre-conference agreement with the House, or informal meetings and conversations ahead of final-stage efforts to prepare a funding deal for passage in both chambers.

“It looks like we're fairly close,” Grassley told reporters. “All I can tell you is, in meetings I've been a part of, and where this has been described, it's not finalized yet, but great progress (is) being made.”

Grassley said his office heard of a mom in Marion who “burst into tears” at the cash register when she realized she didn’t have enough funds on her SNAP Electronic Benefit Transfer card to pay for her groceries.

“Food banks in Iowa are telling my office that the number of people seeking assistance has roughly doubled,” Grassley said. “It’s beyond time the Democrats end this harmful shutdown antics so Iowans can get the services they need and are owed. Let's hope this is the way Democrats find some common sense and finally work with Republicans to fund the government.”

Hinson touts rural health care bill amid shutdown

Even as the shutdown dominates Washington, Hinson said she continues working on bipartisan legislation to improve rural health care access.

Following Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Hinson introduced the CATCH IT Act — short for Community Access to Treatment and Care for Health through Increased Testing Act — with U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich. The bill would increase federal cost-sharing by 25 percent for rural projects involving preventive health equipment such as mammogram machines, mobile cancer screening units and early detection tools.

“Early detection gives hope a head start, and it saves lives,” Hinson said. “I’m very proud to help introduce this bipartisan legislation that would strengthen federal resources for cancer prevention, and I will continue working across the aisle to spread awareness about the importance of early detection.”

She said the ongoing shutdown is preventing Congress from working on solutions to drive down insurance premiums and prescription drug costs.

Hinson reiterated her criticism of Democrats’ demands to extend premium tax credits temporarily expanded during the pandemic that expire at the end of the year.

“It’s not the Affordable Care Act, and these subsidies the Democrats put into place were to mask the massive increases in premiums that were happening because of their failed program,” she said. “So I want to work on solutions to lower the cost of care, expand access … and ensure that Iowans aren’t paying sky high premiums. But unfortunately, it is hard to do that when the government is closed.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com