The bill President Donald Trump signed on November 12 to end the longest federal government shutdown includes $16 million for designated projects in Iowa, according to Bleeding Heartland’s analysis of a Senate Appropriations Committee report. U.S. Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley were among 60 senators who approved the funding bill on November 10. All four U.S. House Republicans from Iowa—Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Ashley Hinson (IA-02), Zach Nunn (IA-03), and Randy Feenstra (IA-04)—were among the 22 representatives who voted for the bill two days later.

The bill funds most federal government operations through January 30, 2026. A few agencies and programs, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are funded through the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30, 2026.

Miller-Meeks, Hinson, and Nunn had all requested “community project funding” through various USDA programs. The final bill included eleven of those earmarked projects: five in Hinson’s district, and three each sought by Miller-Meeks and Nunn.

The 36 counties in IA-04 will receive none of the earmarked funding, because for the fifth straight year, Feenstra declined to submit any requests for community projects. Ernst and Grassley have not participated in the earmarks process in recent years either. Abstaining from the process does not save any taxpayer dollars; it only ensures that the federal funds allocated for Congressionally-directed spending flow to other members’ districts.

These are the first earmarks Iowa will receive from a government funding bill since 2024. Miller-Meeks, Hinson, and Nunn submitted a combined $115 million in community project requests for fiscal year 2025, but the appropriations bill Congress approved in March of this year—with Iowa’s whole delegation voting in favor—included no money for any earmarked projects.

Miller-Meeks, Hinson, and Nunn each submitted fifteen community project funding requests (the maximum allowed for each U.S. House member) for the current fiscal year. Most of them were repeated from last year. The fate of the other projects—which include improvements to roads, flood mitigation, higher education, and airports—won’t be known until Congress approves and Trump signs final appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026.

In addition to helping communities, earmarks can raise the profile of members of Congress, through their own newsletters and press releases or media coverage of ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Miller-Meeks mentioned some of her successful funding requests during a contentious town hall meeting in Keosauqua on November 10.

$4 million for a drinking water project

The largest earmark heading to Iowa soon: $4 million from the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service to upgrade the drinking water system in Belle Plaine, a city of about 2,300 people in Benton County.

When requesting that level of funding, Hinson wrote, “The Belle Plaine community frequently faces water supply challenges due to drought, and the city recently implemented water restrictions to prevent a water shortage. […] This project will allow the city to improve water quality from its emergency well, construct additional wells to bolster the city’s water supply, upgrade electrical systems to support drinking water infrastructure, and strengthen the city’s water storage and distribution.”

Nearly $5.3 million for child care

Most of the successful earmark requests came through the USDA’s Rural Housing Service, which operates a Rural Community Facilities Program. Two will expand child care options in smaller cities: Miller-Meeks secured $2,797,975—$2 million less than she requested—to help open an additional 50 slots at the YMCA of Newton (Jasper County).

Vision Atlantic will receive $2.5 million to help build a child development center in Atlantic “that will accommodate up to 300 kids ages 0-7 years old for childcare as well as house two preschool classrooms.” Nunn had asked for $3 million, noting that “The Childcare Resource and Referral has deemed Atlantic and Cass County as a Childcare Desert.”

$4.5 million for medical facilities

Several medical projects will also be funded through the Rural Community Facilities Program. The St. Luke’s/Jones Regional Medical Center in Anamosa will receive $2 million to support medical simulation facilities used in nurse training. That’s the full amount Miller-Meeks requested in the current budget; she had asked for more than $6.6 million in fiscal year 2025 for the same project.

Miller-Meeks asked for and received $825,000 to improve the Keokuk Area Hospital building so that the facility can “offer outpatient specialty services in addition to emergency services.” She noted in her funding request that “this area has not had a hospital since October 2022, and it has created a significant gap in safety and access to healthcare for Lee County.”

Hinson secured $1 million for the Grinnell Regional Medical Center and $700,000 for the Winneshiek Medical Center Foundation. Those amounts matched what she requested for fiscal year 2026. Her requests the previous year had been more ambitious: $1.25 million for the hospital in Grinnell and $1.68 million for the one in Decorah.

The earmark for Grinnell will expand the hospital’s labor and delivery unit, which serves a six-county rural area, increasing capacity to 250 births annually. The earmark for the hospital in Winneshiek County will support “state-of-the-art surgical technology through robotic-assisted systems to expand access to safe, and minimally invasive surgeries in rural northeast Iowa,” Hinson wrote in her funding request.

$1.26 million for public works

Hinson was able to secure funding for two public works projects through the Rural Community Facilities Program. She asked for and received $1 million to build a new facility for the Aplington Fire and EMS departments, now located in a “severely outdated 1984 building” in Butler County. Her funding request stated, “The Aplington Fire and EMS Department is a volunteer force serving nearly 1,900 residents across 78 square miles, responding to more than 130 calls annually.”

Hinson also secured $265,451 to help build a new public works facility in Dysart (Tama County). She had asked for $396,000 for that project; the building would be able to “safely hold public works equipment” related to water treatment, road maintenance, and snow removal. 

$412,500 to enhance a tourist attraction

For two years running, Nunn asked for $450,000 for the Wapello Heritage Foundation to support a classroom at the American Gothic House (world-famous from Grant Wood’s painting) in Eldon. It’s getting $412,500 this year from the USDA’s Rural Community Facilities Program. Nunn wrote in his funding request,

This project is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds because approximately 18,000 tourists from around the world visit the iconic American Gothic House annually in a town of just 800 residents. The American Gothic House is a critical pillar of the City of Eldon’s local, rural economy. The addition of a classroom at the American Gothic House would assist in providing educational experiences and programming to the community at large.

$500,000 for drought and flood monitoring

Finally, one earmark is coming to Iowa from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The University of Iowa’s Hydroscience and Engineering department will receive $500,000 for “Advanced Flood and Drought Monitoring and Forecasting for Western Iowa.”

During the fiscal year 2025 budget process, Hinson had asked for $500,000 for the University of Iowa to improve drought monitoring. Nunn picked up that idea for the current budget year and tailored it to parts of his district. Excerpt from his funding request:

This funding for this project would be used for two interrelated activities: 1) to expand Iowa’s hydrologic monitoring network; and 2) to connect the data from the hydrologic monitoring network to develop the Iowa Drought Information System (IDIS). The Iowa Flood Center will install one hydrologic weather station in each county in District 3 that does not currently have a station (18 counties) to improve flood and drought monitoring, assessment, and forecasting. Furthermore, the project will help build the IDIS—an online web application that will collect and visually display real-time data from the hydrostation network through a user-friendly platform. 

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Links to view other community project funding requested by three Iowa members of Congress:

• Miller-Meeks earmark requests for FY 2025
• Miller-Meeks earmark requests for FY 2026
• Hinson earmark requests for FY 2025
• Hinson earmark requests for FY 2026
• Nunn earmark requests for FY 2025
• Nunn earmark requests for FY 2026

Full list of Iowa earmarks included in the USDA funding legislation that President Trump signed on November 12:

Recipient	Requester	Amount requested	Amount funded
YMCA Newton	Miller-Meeks	$4,797,975	$2,797,975
Keokuk Area Hospital	Miller-Meeks	$825,000	$825,000
Jones Regional Medical	Miller-Meeks	$2,000,000	$2,000,000
City of Belle Plaine	Hinson	$4,000,000	$4,000,000
City of Aplington	Hinson	$1,000,000	$1,000,000
Grinnell Regional Medical	Hinson	$1,000,000	$1,000,000
Winneshiek Medical Ctr	Hinson	$700,000	$700,000
City of Dysart	Hinson	$396,000	$265,451
Vision Atlantic	Nunn	$3,000,000	$2,500,000
Wapello Heritage Foundation	Nunn	$450,000	$412,500
University of Iowa	Nunn	$500,000	$500,000
total		$18,668,975	$16,000,926

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Top photo of the American Gothic House in Eldon, Iowa (Wapello County) is by Eric Friedebach, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.