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Read. Follow. Verify.Iowa Senate Appropriations Bill Funds State Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs Programs for Fiscal Year 2025-2026
Last action · June 27, 2025: Explanations of votes. H.J. 1223 .
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What This Bill Does
This bill allocates general fund and trust fund appropriations for 2025-2026 to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs, covering medical assistance, behavioral health, aging services, child protection, and nursing facility reimbursement methodologies.
The measure sets state operating budgets and reimbursement formulas for major safety-net programs, impacting health care providers, nursing facilities, veterans, and individuals receiving public assistance across Iowa.
Who It Affects
Groups the bill's text affects, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Department of Veterans Affairs
The department receives specific fiscal year appropriations for administration, the Iowa Veterans Home, and home ownership assistance programs.
Department of Health and Human Services
The department receives extensive appropriations across multiple divisions and is tasked with implementing new reimbursement methodologies, work groups, and administrative duties.
Nursing Facilities
Nursing facility reimbursement rates are subject to rebasing, new methodology proposals, and bed forecasting formulas.
Medicaid Recipients
Medical assistance funding levels, service inclusions, and restrictions on specific procedures such as gender reassignment treatments and abortions directly alter available healthcare coverage.
Key Facts
- Appropriates $1,369,205 and 15.00 FTE positions for Department of Veterans Affairs administration for FY 2025-2026.
- Appropriates $8,145,736 for the Iowa Veterans Home for FY 2025-2026.
- Appropriates $2,700,000 for transfer to the Iowa finance authority for the home ownership assistance program.
- Appropriates $19,208,180 for aging and disability services within the Department of Health and Human Services.
Show all 22 facts
- Appropriates $24,442,121 for behavioral health prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts from the general fund.
- Appropriates $1,750,000 from the sports wagering receipts fund for behavioral health programs.
- Appropriates $22,413,369 for public health programs, including allocations for prescription drug repositories, free clinics, rural health awareness, and safety net specialty care.
- Appropriates $68,542,456 for community access and eligibility, including family investment program assistance and developmental screening initiatives.
- Appropriates $15,644,114 for child support services.
- Appropriates $1,900,804,677 for the medical assistance program, state supplementary assistance, and Hawki program, with specific allocations including $1,808,383,124 for medical assistance reimbursement.
- Prohibits medical assistance moneys from being used for abortions or sex reassignment surgery or treatment related to gender dysphoria.
- Appropriates $39,672,433 for health program operations and the autism support program.
- Appropriates $234,193 from the pharmaceutical settlement account, $111,216,205 from the quality assurance trust fund, and $33,920,554 from the hospital health care access trust fund to supplement medical assistance.
- Requires the department to rebase case-mix nursing facility rates beginning July 1, 2025, using Medicaid cost reports on file for the period ending December 31, 2024, utilizing no more than $16,000,000 from medical assistance appropriations.
- Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a nursing facility reimbursement methodology proposal by April 1, 2026.
- Requires the establishment of a work group to recommend a nursing facility bed forecasting formula by July 1, 2026.
- Appropriates $34,983,000 for state child care assistance.
- Appropriates $36,301,904 for early intervention and supports, including funds for FaDSS grants, early childhood Iowa funds, and the more options for maternal support program.
- Appropriates $166,308,818 for child protective services, child, family, and adoption services.
- Appropriates $102,337,130 for state-operated specialty care institutions under department jurisdiction.
- Appropriates $21,904,214 for accountability, compliance, program integrity, and up to 4,148.00 full-time equivalent positions.
- Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to administer the more options for maternal support program directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What state agencies receive appropriations under this bill?
Are medical assistance funds allowed to be used for abortions or gender reassignment surgeries?
What changes are required regarding nursing facility reimbursement?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Current status: Signed into law.
Procedural history
40 actions- Jun 27, 2025HouseExplanations of votes. H.J. 1223 .
- Jun 27, 2025HouseExplanation of vote. H.J. 1223 .
- Jun 11, 2025HouseEnrolledSigned by Governor . H.J. 1229 .
- May 22, 2025HouseReported correctly enrolled, signed by Speaker and President, and sent to Governor. H.J. 1224 .
- May 14, 2025HouseMessage from Senate. H.J. 1199 .
- May 14, 2025SenateImmediate message. S.J. 1016 .
Show 34 earlier actions
- May 14, 2025SenateFloorPassed Senate , yeas 31, nays 15. S.J. 1012 .
- May 14, 2025SenateSubstituted for SF 649 . S.J. 1011 .
- May 14, 2025SenateWithdrawn. S.J. 1012 .
- May 14, 2025SenateHF 1049 substituted. S.J. 1011 .
- May 13, 2025SenateIntroducedRead first time, attached to SF 649 . S.J. 998 .
- May 13, 2025HouseMessage from House. S.J. 998 .
- May 13, 2025HouseImmediate message. H.J. 1167 .
- May 13, 2025HouseExplanation of vote. H.J. 1177 .
- May 13, 2025HouseFloorPassed House , yeas 63, nays 28. H.J. 1167 .
- May 13, 2025HouseMotion to suspend rules failed. H.J. 1166 .
- May 13, 2025HouseMotion to suspend rules for immediate consideration of amendment H-1334 , yeas 30, nays 61. H.J. 1165 .
- May 13, 2025HousePoint of order raised on amendment H-1334 , ruled not germane. H.J. 1165 .
- May 13, 2025HouseAmendment H-1334 filed. H.J. 1165 .
- May 13, 2025HousePoint of order raised on amendment H-1333 , ruled not germane. H.J. 1165 .
- May 13, 2025HouseAmendment H-1333 filed. H.J. 1165 .
- May 13, 2025SenateAttached to HF 1049 . S.J. 998 .
- May 13, 2025SenateDeferred. S.J. 981 .
- May 13, 2025SenateFloorAmendment S-3158 adopted. S.J. 981 .
- May 12, 2025HouseIntroducedIntroduced, placed on Appropriations calendar. H.J. 1116 .
- May 12, 2025Iowa LegislatureCommittee report approving bill, renumbered as HF 1049 .
- May 12, 2025HouseCommittee vote: Yeas, 17. Nays, 8. H.J. 1143 .
- May 12, 2025HouseCommittee report, recommending amendment and passage. H.J. 1143 .
- May 12, 2025SenateAmendment S-3158 filed. S.J. 977 .
- May 6, 2025Iowa LegislatureCommittee report approving bill, renumbered as SF 649 .
- May 6, 2025SenateNOBA: Senate Full Approps
- May 6, 2025SenateCommittee report, approving bill. S.J. 942 .
- May 6, 2025SenateIntroducedIntroduced, placed on Appropriations calendar. S.J. 940 .
- Apr 30, 2025Iowa LegislatureSubcommittee Meeting: 05/01/2025 2:30PM RM 103.
- Apr 30, 2025HouseSubcommittee: Meyer, A., Baeth, Barker, Judge, Lundgren, Moore, T., Rinker, Turek and Watkins. H.J. 1083 .
- Apr 30, 2025HouseIntroducedIntroduced, referred to Appropriations. H.J. 1082 .
- Apr 30, 2025Iowa LegislatureSubcommittee recommends passage.
- Apr 29, 2025SenateSubcommittee Meeting: 04/30/2025 8:30AM Senate Lounge.
- Apr 29, 2025Iowa LegislatureSubcommittee: Costello, Donahue, and Warme.
- Apr 29, 2025Iowa LegislatureIntroducedIntroduced, referred to Appropriations.
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Direct Administration of Maternal Support Program
The bill shifts administrative authority for the more options for maternal support program away from an optional third-party administrator to direct administration by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.legis.iowa.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance95How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy65Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz40Current news / social attention level
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