Gov. Reynolds’ administration announced this week that Iowa will stop using foster children’s Social Security survivor benefits to pay for their own care — the same reform Trone Garriott sponsored in 2024 and 2025.
DES MOINES, IA — State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic candidate for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, today welcomed news that Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services will stop using foster children’s Social Security survivor benefits to cover the cost of their own foster care, and instead save those benefits for the kids’ future.
It’s a change Trone Garriott has pushed for since 2024, when she led the effort at the Statehouse to end the practice, sometimes called the “orphan tax.”
In 2024, Trone Garriott was the lead sponsor of an amendment to the state’s health and human services budget that would have required HHS to set up separate accounts to protect survivor benefits for foster kids, paired with $1.2 million in additional state funding to support foster care services. While the amendment was not successful, Trone Garriott spoke on the Senate floor in support of the change, urging her colleagues to protect the money for the kids it was meant for.
In 2025, Trone Garriott again authored an amendment and sponsored SF 481 to push for this policy to be enacted.
“These kids have already lost a parent. The least we can do is make sure the benefits meant for their future actually get saved for their future,” Trone Garriott said. “I want to thank Governor Reynolds and the folks at HHS for getting this done.
“This is what I want to keep doing in Congress,” she continued. “Find a problem that’s hurting Iowa kids and families, build support wherever I can find it, work with anyone willing to get it done, and keep showing up until it’s fixed.”
Trone Garriott, an ordained Lutheran minister and former hospital chaplain, has built a legislative record of working across the aisle on issues affecting Iowa families, including tax relief, prescription drug costs, and child care costs. As a state senator, she holds regular town halls, has knocked on thousands of doors, and gives out her personal phone number to constituents.