Iowa is joining a federal law in blocking undocumented immigrants — as well as some with legal status, such as refugees — from being eligible for food assistance.
Senate File 2422 aligns Iowa with several provisions in President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the legislation on Tuesday, June 2.
The law prohibits undocumented immigrants, as well as refugees, asylees and those with humanitarian parole, from being eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Other groups of immigrants, like those with lawful permanent residency, would still be eligible.
Those restrictions are already in place under the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” but the Iowa law ensures they would remain in state code if the federal legislation is ever repealed or amended.
The law 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.
Pregnant women, children and nursing facility residents covered by Medicaid will see their window of retroactive eligibility shortened from three months to two months under the law, which also aligns Iowa with the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
And the state must submit a waiver request to the federal government saying that members of the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan, the state’s Medicaid expansion program, are only eligible for Medicaid beginning on the first day of the month that they enroll.
Current federal law allows one month of retroactive eligibility for Medicaid expansion recipients.
The law also requires the state to get approval from the Legislature before seeking any future federal waivers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Iowa’s Medicaid program unless the waivers are cost neutral.
Stephen Gruber-Miller is the Capitol bureau chief for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com, by phone at 515-284-8169 or on X at @sgrubermiller.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa tightens rules on SNAP eligibility, joining ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’
Reporting by Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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