The one Big Beautiful Bill Delivers major wins for iowans

The One Big Beautiful Bill prevents a more than $4 trillion tax hike on American families and workers by making the 2017 Trump tax cuts – which were due to expire on December 31, 2025 – permanent. This saves Iowans from disastrous consequences.

If the 2017 tax cuts had expired: 

In addition to rescuing Iowans from a multi-billion dollar financial hit, this legislation solidifies critical tax reform measures that will allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money.

Expanding the Child Tax Credit

Not only does the One Big Beautiful Bill prevent the Child Tax Credit from being cut in half, it permanently expands the credit to $2,200. And, thanks to Grassley’s efforts, the credit will now be tied to inflation – so if families’ costs go up, so will their credit. This will provide needed relief for hundreds of thousands of families across Iowa.

Protecting the standard deduction 

The standard deduction is claimed by over 90 percent of taxpayers. In the 2017 Trump tax cuts, Republicans increased and enhanced the standard deduction to help more Iowans keep the money they’ve earned, and in the One Big Beautiful Bill, Congress and President Trump are making this increase permanent.

No tax on tips

President Trump campaigned on supporting working families across the United States. That’s why this bill eliminates taxes on tips, allowing for employees in restaurants, personal service, hospitality and more to keep their hard-earned money.

No tax on overtime

This legislation eliminates burdensome taxes on overtime that hurt many hardworking Iowans, like factory workers, construction workers, nurses and more. 

Supporting childcare

The legislation strengthens the employer-provided childcare credit and boosts childcare assistance to help Iowa families.

Giving relief to gig workers

Through this legislation, Republicans are standing up for gig workers and independent contractors by repealing Democrats’ burdensome Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements – which would have required any transaction over $600 to be reported.  

Permanent small business deduction 

Small businesses are the backbone of Iowa’s economy, constituting 99.3 percent of all businesses across the state. Making the small business tax deduction permanent will enable job creation and spur local economic activity, and it will also help many Iowa farmers who rely on this deduction too.

Permanent pro-growth policies 

The bill restores and makes permanent critical business provisions, like full expensing for domestic research and development (R&D), to spur domestic innovation. It also allows for full expensing for new capital investments, like machinery and equipment, to boost domestic production. In addition to helping small businesses, it helps farmers by allowing for expensing of tractors and combines. These policies increase production and drive higher wages.

Standing with rural communities

One out of every three Iowans lives in a rural area. To support these communities, the bill permanently renews and enhances the Opportunity Zone program, driving $100+ billion of investment to rural and distressed communities.  

Reinvigorating American manufacturing

The One Big Beautiful Bill allows for full expensing for new factories and factory improvements to accelerate domestic manufacturing. This supports President Trump’s efforts to restore manufacturing jobs and production here at home.

As a lifelong family farmer, Senator Grassley's experience as a steward of Iowa’s rich farmland and natural resources guides his work on Capitol Hill to promote renewable energy and a clean environment. 

Standing with wind and solar energy

Grassley successfully got the wind energy industry off the ground by instituting America’s first-ever federal wind energy tax credit in 1993, earning him recognition as the “father” of wind energy production. More than three decades later, the wind energy industry has expanded and matured. The One Big Beautiful Bill responds to the wind industry’s modern-day capabilities while promoting its continued growth.

Grassley fought hard to improve the transition period for planned wind and solar projects by providing a 12-month runway after the One Big Beautiful Bill’s enactment for projects to begin construction, allowing them to qualify for years-worth of tax credits by meeting this one requirement within a calendar year. In doing so, the bill will supercharge near-term growth for the renewable energy industry and protect workable standards for projects. It also puts wind and solar on par with other technologies with respect to imported materials and components.

Grassley secured another significant victory for the wind and solar industries by striking a punitive new tax on wind and solar from the final version of the bill. Renewable energy is critical to Iowa, which generates 60 percent of its energy from wind power alone.

Revitalizing and strengthening Iowa’s renewable fuels industry 

The legislation improves and extends the Clean Fuels Production Tax Credit through 2029. This important extension:

The One Big Beautiful Bill offers a critical safety net for family farmers, so they can continue producing an abundant supply of food and fuel for America. It also reduces waste, promotes state accountability, and helps Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients move toward greater independence through work, education and training opportunities.

Providing certainty for farmers 

Farmers are operating under vastly outdated policies from the 2018 Farm Bill. This One Big Beautiful Bill modernizes the farm safety net and responds to current market factors by significantly increasing reference prices and crop insurance subsidies.

Rolling back the “Death Tax”

No one should be punished for choosing to keep a family farm in the family. This bill permanently boosts the death tax exemption, raising it from $14 million to $15 million for individuals and from $28 million to $30 million for couples. Absent this action, the prior exemption rate would have been automatically cut in half at the end of the year.

Growing global trade

International trade is vital to Iowa, which is why this bill significantly invests in trade promotion of U.S. commodities and agricultural products to expand access to foreign markets. It also bolsters funding for agricultural research to help close the gap with our foreign competitors.

Rooting out waste, fraud and abuse

The bill promotes state accountability and helps SNAP recipients move toward greater independence through work, education and training opportunities. The bill includes exemptions for parents of children 14 or younger.

Conservation and research

In addition to providing sustained investment in agricultural research facilities, the bill increases the budgetary authority for popular conservation programs by over $16 billion, representing an approximately 35% increase in these programs’ baselines.

Fighting New World Screwworm and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Animal health is critical to Iowa’s economy. The One Big Beautiful Bill invests in the Department of Agriculture’s premier animal health programs that defend against livestock disease outbreaks, like New World Screwworm, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and African Swine Fever. These programs include the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program and the National Animal Vaccine Bank.

Republicans are improving and preserving Medicaid for those who need it while enacting specific checks to root out waste, fraud and abuse. This helps ensure the program’s integrity so Americans can continue to rely on these crucial benefits. Vulnerable populations will not lose access to coverage. 

Encouraging accountability

Having a job gives individuals purpose and dignity, and the federal government should promote policies that lift people out of poverty. The One Big Beautiful Bill establishes commonsense work requirements for able-bodied adults to qualify for Medicaid, along with reasonable exemptions.

This approach has a proven track record of success. After work requirements were passed in the 1990s through bipartisan welfare reform, welfare rolls and poverty rates went down, while employment and earnings went up. States like Iowa have led the way by establishing similar requirements.

Protecting rural health care 

The bill includes $50 billion in rural health care transformation to ensure hospitals, nursing homes, community health centers and other rural providers can continue serving their communities and improve care. 

Improving access to home and community-based services

The bill allows states to offer home and community-based services (HCBS) to a broader range of individuals, such as those with developmental disabilities, while ensuring it doesn't negatively impact those already eligible. It also enables interim HCBS coverage while newly eligible individuals develop their full care plan. 

Rooting out waste, fraud and abuse

Wasteful spending drains resources for people in dire need of federal safety nets and puts an unfair burden on taxpayers.

The One Big Beautiful Bill strengthens and restores integrity to Medicaid by:

These integrity provisions for Medicaid and other health care programs will save over $500 billion as standalone provisions, according to a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate. 

Rolling back onerous staffing requirements

This bill cuts the Biden administration’s unworkable one-size-fits-all staffing requirements on nursing homes and other long-term care providers which, if not repealed, could lead to Iowa nursing homes becoming ineligible for Medicaid reimbursement and closing.

Securing access to telehealth services

The bill includes a fix to allow Americans to access telehealth services before their deducible is met. Making this flexibility permanent will preserve access to essential virtual care options for over 32 million Americans with health savings account (HSA)-qualified high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), especially for those in rural, underserved and workforce-dense communities.

Over ten million illegal immigrants crossed the southern border during the last four years – more than three times the population of the state of Iowa. President Trump has already brought illegal border crossings down to historic lows, and under his leadership, year-over-year border apprehensions have dropped 90 percent. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill cements that success and provides historic investments to strengthen and improve America’s border security and immigration system. It also gives front-line immigration enforcement officials the tools they need to recover from the Biden Border Breakdown. 

As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Grassley played a significant role in crafting these provisions, which make up the largest border and immigration package in modern day history.

Finishing the wall and securing the border

Americans overwhelmingly supported President Trump’s promise to end the border crisis and safeguard American sovereignty. This legislation provides $46.5 billion for border wall construction and associated infrastructure, like access roads, cameras, lights and sensors. It also improves border surveillance, including air and marine operations and efforts to combat drug trafficking and human smuggling. In addition, it invests in the detention of illegal immigrants taken into custody pending removal, and it supports funding to hire more Border Patrol agents.

Investing in immigration enforcement 

This legislation provides investments for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to increase staffing and enhance migrant screening and vetting processes, including background checks for illegal immigrants. It also allocates funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enhance the recruitment and retention of staff and to support enforcement and removal operations. It additionally includes Department of Justice (DOJ) funding to hire more immigration judges to address the yearslong case log of immigration petitions, cases and orders of removals, and investigate and prosecute immigration matters, including cartel and gang-related crimes.

Reimbursing states who stepped up to protect American communities

The Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide (BIDEN) Reimbursement Fund helps states – like Iowa – recover for the funds they spent on the investigation, location, apprehension or temporary detention of criminal illegal immigrants from Jan 20, 2021, through Sept 30, 2028. It also covers the costs inflicted on local courts that prosecuted crimes committed by illegal immigrants, including drug and human trafficking. 

Combatting the scourge of fentanyl

Fentanyl poisoning kills roughly 150 Americans per day. To protect America’s communities and clamp down on the flow of deadly drugs like fentanyl, the legislation funds DOJ efforts to combat drug trafficking and precursor chemicals.

Helping victims of undocumented immigrant crime

In 2017, Grassley supported DHS’s decision to launch the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office. The VOICE Office serves as a support system that can provide assistance and resources to individuals victimized or harmed by criminal illegal migrants. The One Big Beautiful Bill strengthens the VOICE Office by ensuring it has the resources needed to provide nonfinancial assistance to those affected by the Biden Border Breakdown. 

Protecting vulnerable youth 

The bill contains a provision to help protect illegal immigrant children from exploitation by providing funds to fingerprint and collect DNA from illegal migrants attempting to enter the United States without a valid visa. Grassley has led efforts to protect unaccompanied migrant children from exploitation and abuse for more than a decade. In April, the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) confirmed Grassley’s numerous concerns about abuse in the Department of Health and Human Services’ unaccompanied migrant children program.

Senator Grassley is proud to back the blue. The One Big Beautiful Bill stands with the men and women who put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe.

Investing in our law enforcement

The bill includes funding for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (Byrne JAG) and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to support boots-on-the-ground efforts to combat violent crime in local communities. To receive additional funding made available in this package, state and local governments must be in full compliance with federal immigration laws.

The legislation also supports ICE’s 287(g) program, which helps expand the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration laws through the supervised support of willing state and local law enforcement jurisdictions. Grassley led the establishment of the 287(g) program in 1996. 

Additionally, the Bureau of Prisons receives much needed funding to address mounting staff shortages and deferred capital improvements to detention structures. The bill also funds law enforcement training centers, such as the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) training resources.

Protecting the president

In the wake of two assassination attempts against President Trump, this bill provides essential resources for U.S. Secret Service (USSS) recruitment and training efforts. These will help ensure USSS can fully and effectively carry out its mission: protection.

For years, Republicans and Democrats have opposed the overuse of universal injunctions, which have no basis in the Constitution and allow a single judge to dictate nationwide policy. Article III of the Constitution limits courts to deciding the “cases” or “controversies” before them, which the Supreme Court recently affirmed in a 6-3 ruling.

The One Big Beautiful Bill includes provisions authored by Judiciary Chairman Grassley that fight back against judicial overreach and the use of unconstitutional universal injunctions. They include: 

America must improve access to higher education and workforce training to strengthen opportunity and prosperity for generations to come. The One Big Beautiful Bill supports students and families to ensure Americans have the skills to compete in a 21st century economy.

Enhances access to aid and workforce training

The legislation authorizes Pell Grants for short-term workforce training programs to increase low-income students’ access to career or technical-based education. This will help more Iowans receive the training they need to earn good-paying jobs. 

It also fixes what’s widely known in rural America as a cash-poor, asset-rich penalty to ensure family farm and small business assets do not count against federal financial aid eligibility. This will help ensure farm kids and small business families get a fair shake.

Rolls back Biden’s student loan socialism

The One Big Beautiful Bill rolls back President Biden’s student loan schemes that transferred debt onto the 87 percent of Americans who chose to not go to college or already paid off their loans. It also prevents taxpayer-subsidized loans for degrees that leave students worse off than if they never went to college.

America’s rising debt poses a serious threat to the country’s economic health, and Republicans are committed to righting the nation’s fiscal ship. The One Big Beautiful Bill rolls back Democrats’ radical spending and puts our country back on a sound path forward.

Reduces runaway federal spending  

The One Big Beautiful Bill begins to rein in the U.S.’s ballooning mandatory spending that has driven federal spending to levels never seen outside of war or recession. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that this legislation will reduce spending by $1.25 trillion dollars and reduce the deficit by $400 billion. 

Stops the radical “Green New Deal” and restores American energy dominance

The bill repeals billions in unused climate slush funds and rolls back another prong of Democrats’ electric vehicle mandate. It also cuts wasteful spending on “green” aviation fuel sourced from Brazil. And, it saves over $500 billion by responsibly phasing out green energy tax credits. 

Further, the legislation generates billions through expanded oil, gas, coal and geothermal leasing, while supporting strong domestic energy production that lowers prices for families.

National security is the number one responsibility of the federal government. The Big Beautiful Bill delivers on that key tenet by providing significant funding to strengthen America’s national security.

Upgrades America’s aging air traffic control system

To secure our skies, the One Big Beautiful Bill funds urgent tech and safety needs at the Federal Aviation Administration, including upgrades to 1960s-era radar systems. In addition to consolidating old and unneeded facilities, the bill replaces aging and unreliable copper lines with the latest telecommunications technology.

Landmark down payment to modernize America’s military

This legislation invests in our military to ensure the United States Armed Forces can continue protecting Americans and be ready to meet the challenges of tomorrow. 

The bill provides billions to improve service members’ quality of life, including pay raises and increases to housing, health care, childcare and education. It expands the size and capability of our naval fleet to maintain and grow maritime dominance, and it accelerates delivery of next generation aircraft and autonomous systems for enforced air superiority.

Critically, the measure funds President Trump’s Golden Dome layered missile defense shield. It also boosts purchases of the most important munitions and expands capacity in the industrial base. To keep America secure, it provides $1 billion in funding for the Defense Production Act. The bill also improves readiness of our current nuclear deterrent, including decades old equipment, as well as investing in infrastructure required to manufacture nuclear weapons.

Auditing the Pentagon

For decades, Grassley has led the fight to fix the Department of Defense’s (DOD) broken financial management and accounting systems, which are breeding grounds for wasteful spending. The One Big Beautiful Bill upgrades and modernizes the DOD’s business systems so that the department can finally achieve a clean audit.

Additional funding is provided to the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General to provide continued oversight of DOD’s spending.