DES MOINES, Iowa — Several Iowa organizations serving people with disabilities are worried their programs may be cut after a federal internal budget document was leaked last week. 

The Washington Post was first to report this leak that proposed to cut about 1/3 of the 2026 discretionary budget for the Department of Health and Human Services. That’s a $40 million cut, which would affect many programs for those with disabilities. 

If this proposal were to go through the Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council, the Disability Rights of Iowa and the Iowa University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, among many others, would be eliminated.

Nationally, the CDC estimates that 28% of Americans have some type of disability, and that data holds fairly true for Iowa as well. So, 1/4 of Iowans would be affected.

“Shock. I think that was our first reaction. And yeah, just a little bit hurt too, I think because these are cuts to our program,” Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council Executive Director Brooke Lovelace said. “We feel like it’s almost an attack against people with disabilities and their family members.”

“Our three programs have worked so well together over the last 50 years to help decrease the institutionalization of people with disabilities. By eliminating our program it feels like all that work will go away,” she said.

“To not have someone who could independently go in and make sure that people are being treated with dignity, respect and safety is a huge concern for people’s lives,” the Harkin Institute Director of Disability Policy, Daniel Van Sant said. “I think about school kids receiving services through something like Head Start or special ed services through Disability Rights Iowa. There’s just so many potential things that would be cut.”

This is just a leaked proposal, so it’s not official. But over the next few months these groups will try to fight it. 

“There’s a lot of advocacies that can still be done. I think what we’re asking of folks is: If you’re impacted by one of the programs that are they’re being cut, and again there’s thousands of programs that are being cut not just our program, reach out to your Congress members and make sure that you tell them how these programs impact you,” Lovelace said.

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