The U.S. Capitol on the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, just hours before a federal government shutdown. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
While Iowa’s U.S. representatives celebrated the end of the federal government shutdown, Democrats and advocates targeted the state’s all-GOP congressional delegation for not addressing health care cost increases expected to come at the end of the year.
A stopgap spending package made it to President Donald Trump’s desk Wednesday shortly after it was approved in the House, ending the longest shutdown in national history that largely centered on the extension of Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits set to expire at the end of 2025.
Seven Senate Democrats and one independent voted to approve the spending bill Monday to end the shutdown after Senate Majority Leader John Thune agreed to hold a vote in December on a bill related to the ACA tax credits. House Speaker Mike Johnson has not agreed to hold a vote on such a measure in the House.
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All six of Iowa’s Republican U.S. senators and representatives voted in support of the spending package this week.
As the House voted 222-209 to pass the measure, Iowa’s House members released statements celebrating the end of the government shutdown.
U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said she was “relieved this senseless shutdown is finally over and will continue fighting to lower costs, protect our veterans, and support Iowa’s small businesses and farmers.”
“For 43 days, Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats held our nation hostage, blocking pay for our troops, air traffic controllers, corrections officers, federal employees, and families who rely on SNAP to feed their children, all to push a $1.5 trillion wish list and taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants,” Miller-Meeks said in a statement. “I voted to keep the government open because I know the truth: in a shutdown, nobody wins and the American people lose.”
U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn said in a statement Democrats not voting earlier to fund the government hurt Americans through impacts like the loss of SNAP benefits and pay for federal employees.
“This was never a red or blue issue, this was about working together to open the government for the American people,” Nunn said. “While I’m glad we finally ended the gridlock, my Democratic colleagues need to understand what their political gamesmanship cost Iowa. 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. The deal we passed today was on the table more than a month ago, and we should have reached it before this shutdown ever began.”
U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat in 2026, released a statement characterizing the shutdown as Democrats holding “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,” Hinson said. “Now, we need to advance bipartisan solutions to ensure working families have affordable and accessible health care and lower costs across the board. Good things happen when we work together, and I’ll continue reaching across the aisle to make life easier and more affordable for Iowans.”
But critics point to Hinson’s lack of action to address the ACA enhanced tax credits expiration as a sign she is not committed to lowering health care costs. The Democrat-aligned advocacy group Majority Forward released an ad airing on YouTube and digital streaming platforms late Tuesday, targeting Hinson for not supporting the extension of ACA tax credits.
“It’s official,” a narrator in the ad states. “Health insurance premiums will go up starting January 1, because Ashley Hinson voted to raise our costs even more. … Iowa families forced to choose — rent, groceries, health care — because Ashley Hinson chose to make you pay more.”
Health care premiums are expected to double for people who receive health coverage through ACA-established Health Insurance Marketplaces if the enhanced tax credits, created in 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and extended from the Inflation Reduction Act, do not continue.
According to analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation, in Iowa, premium costs could increase by more than $1,000 if the Inflation Reduction Act subsidies expire. There are nearly 137,000 Iowans are enrolled on Marketplace plans in 2025. The Majority Forward ad calls for Iowans to “tell Ashley Hinson to stop raising our costs.”
Radio Iowa reported earlier in November Hinson said the ACA subsidies were put in place to “mask” the rising costs of health care premiums, saying she wants to “work on solutions to lower the cost of care, expand access.”
Organizers like Mazie Stilwell, executive director of Progress Iowa, criticized the Iowa Republicans for voting for the deal, saying it was “a betrayal to Iowans dealing with the out-of-control costs Republicans keep causing.”
“Shutting down the government to protect billionaires, then reopening it without extending health tax credits is a betrayal to Iowans dealing with the out-of-control costs Republicans keep causing,” Stilwell said. “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. Tonight, once again, instead of lowering health care costs, they stood with billionaires and called Iowans facing skyrocketing costs ‘a 2026 issue.’”
Abbey Paxton, owner of Storyhouse Bookpub in Des Moines, said in a news release ending the shutdown will not address rising health care costs in Iowa.
“Reopening the government doesn’t fix the health care crisis small business owners like me are facing,” Paxton said in a statement. “Every Iowa representative voted for deep cuts to Medicaid and against extending the premium tax credits that make coverage affordable for families like mine. 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.”
Democrats running for the U.S. Senate seat have criticized Hinson and Republicans for not supporting the tax credit extension — as well as criticizing the Senate Democrats who broke ranks to end the shutdown. Iowa Sen. Zach Wahls, Rep. Josh Turek and Democrat Nathan Sage, all competing to become the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, all expressed frustration Sunday that the shutdown was ending without addressing the ACA subsidies.
Wahls and Sage both called for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to step down from his role leading the caucus Monday. In a news conference Monday, Wahls called the deal a “betrayal,” and said Schumer was unable to lead the party “at the exact moment when it was time to fight.”
“I think it is clear as day that it is time for him to step down from his leadership role and make way for a new generation of leaders who are willing to fight,” Wahls said.
Sage posted a video on social media Monday also criticizing Schumer for being unable to keep some Senate Democrats from voting with Republicans to end the shutdown.
“Chuck Schumer? Get out of here,” Sage said. “… He’s the most pathetic minority leader and it’s long past time for him to get the hell out of the way.”
Sage also released a statement later Monday calling for Turek to join him and Wahls in “demanding (Schumer) step down as leader of Senate Democrats.” Turek did not respond to a request for comment on Schumer, but did release a statement Sunday calling for Democrats to continue fighting for ACA subsidies, saying “health care is worth fighting for.”
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