{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://feenstra.house.gov/media/press-releases/feenstra-and-iowa-delegation-demand-schumer-end-democrat-shutdown", "Feenstra and Iowa Delegation Demand Schumer End Democrat Shutdown", "2025-10-20", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "House", "IA", "Randy Feenstra", "F000446", "feenstra.house.gov", "feenstra", "https://feenstra.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "HULL, IOWA \u2013 Today, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Hull) joined his Iowa colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives in sending a letter to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) urging immediate passage of the clean Continuing Resolution (CR) that House Republicans passed in September.\n\n\u201cIn September, Republicans did our job and voted to keep the government open for Iowans. Unfortunately, Democrats chose to play politics and shut the government down because they won\u2019t budge on giving free healthcare to illegal immigrants and adding $1.5 trillion to our $37-trillion debt. Their recklessness put pay for our troops and WIC payments at risk, and continues to hurt our farmers, seniors, veterans, and small businesses,\u201d said Rep. Feenstra. \u201cI\u2019m glad to join forces with my Iowa colleagues demanding that Senator Schumer and the Democrats end their government shutdown. Again, the Democrats are hurting Iowa families all to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants and put our country deeper into debt.\u201d\n\nThe letter outlines the growing consequences of the prolonged government shutdown for Iowa\u2019s families, farmers, veterans, and service members:\n\nOver 18,000 federal employees in Iowa are either furloughed or working without pay, including nearly 10,000 Iowa National Guard troops, 1,800 of whom are serving overseas.\n\n62,000 women and children who rely on nutrition programs face service disruptions.\n\n267,000 Iowans on SNAP, including more than 100,000 children, could soon see delayed benefits.\n\nThousands of Iowa farmers cannot access USDA offices for critical support.\n\n680,000 Medicare beneficiaries risk losing access to telehealth services, while rural hospitals face funding shortfalls.\n\nThe Iowa delegation\u2019s letter to Schumer emphasizes that this shutdown is \u201cinflicting real harm on the people of Iowa: women, children, farmers, veterans, seniors, and service members.\u201d The letter calls on Schumer to \u201cset aside partisanship, put the American people first, and vote to immediately reopen the government.\u201d\n\nHouse Republicans\u2019 clean, seven-week CR would fund the government at current levels, allowing Congress time to complete the appropriations process and cut wasteful spending from the federal budget while preventing unnecessary disruptions to essential programs.\n\nThe full letter can be found HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://feenstra.house.gov/media/press-releases/feenstra-and-iowa-delegation-demand-schumer-end-democrat-shutdown"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5526958741247654, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}