By Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register
Iowa will align with the federal “One Big, Beautiful Bill” in barring undocumented immigrants — and some with legal status — from being eligible for food assistance benefits.
Senate File 2422, which awaits Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signature, adds several of the federal legislation’s restrictions to Iowa’s state law.
It would prohibit undocumented immigrants, as well as refugees, asylees and those with humanitarian parole, from being eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
Senators voted 27-16 to pass the legislation on April 30. Later in the day, the House passed the bill 60-24 to send it to Reynolds for her signature.
Sen. Scott Webster, R-Bettendorf, said the bill “makes it clear that illegal aliens should never be eligible to receive public assistance using taxpayer dollars.”
“It also implements integrity measures for the Iowa HHS to ensure that our welfare system is a safeguard against waste, fraud and abuse,” he said.
Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, said the legislation goes against Iowa’s tradition of helping those in need. And it ensures that even if federal law changes in the future, Iowa will still deny food benefits to the people covered by the bill.
“We need to be clear about what we are doing in this legislation,” she said. “No matter who is president or who’s in Congress and what decisions that those leaders who are elected make in the future, Iowa is going to refuse to feed refugees, asylees, survivors of domestic violence, humanitarian parolees and victims of human trafficking.”
President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” already excludes those groups from the program, but the Iowa legislation adds the prohibition to state law.
The bill says Iowa must request a federal waiver to allow Iowans’ SNAP benefits to expire if they are not used within three months, down from nine months under current law.
And it requires quarterly reports on Iowa’s SNAP payment error rate. The federal legislation says if states’ error rates rise above 6% they must pay a percentage of the cost of SNAP benefits for the first time.
The bill’s House floor manager, Rep. Austin Harris, R-Moulton, said the reports mean if Iowa’s error rate rises, “we can see that train coming down the tracks.”
The final legislation awaiting Reynolds’ signature takes out several components that were part of earlier versions of the bill.
That includes language allowing people with disabilities who work to earn more money while remaining eligible for benefits.
Harris said “unfortunately we could not get the Senate to budge” on raising the income limits.
The final bill also strikes language that would have required recipients of several public benefits programs to prove they had lived in Iowa for 12 months before they could claim benefits.
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