Sponsors
The bill extends and broadens a hiring tax credit to boost employment for disadvantaged groups (including justice-impacted people and disconnected youth), trading increased hiring incentives and targeted opportunity against lost federal revenue and added compliance/eligibility complexity.
Employers—especially small businesses—gain an extended employee tax credit through 2030, lowering net hiring costs and increasing incentives to hire targeted groups.
People with recent felony convictions or long probation/incarceration are newly eligible as 'criminal justice-impacted' hires within three years of conviction/release, improving job prospects for this disadvantaged group.
Out-of-school youth certified under WIOA become an eligible category, increasing employment opportunities for disconnected young people.
Taxpayers face reduced federal revenue because extending and expanding the credit lowers receipts, which could increase deficits or crowd out other spending priorities.
Employers—particularly small businesses—will face new certification rules and Treasury regulations that create short-term compliance costs and added administrative complexity.
Criminal-justice-impacted and other eligible workers risk uneven access because the 3-year hiring window and local agency certification could exclude people hired later or lacking timely certification.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Extends the Work Opportunity Tax Credit to 2030 and expands eligible hires to include defined criminal-justice-impacted individuals and WIOA-certified opportunity youth.
Introduced March 19, 2026 by Wesley Bell · Last progress March 19, 2026
Extends the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) through December 31, 2030 and broadens who counts as an eligible hire. The bill replaces the current "qualified ex-felon" category with a broader "qualified criminal justice-impacted individual" definition and adds a new "qualified opportunity youth" category for WIOA-certified out-of-school youth. The measure requires Treasury to issue implementing regulations and directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study and report within one year on how employers claim the credit, with recommendations to improve agency coordination, data collection, and to simplify employer paperwork.