Sponsors (5)
The bill creates targeted paid-job pilots with strong wage, benefit, and support requirements that could substantially improve employment and stability for participants, but does so with open-ended federal spending, administrative burdens, and a limited geographic scale that may leave many high-need areas excluded.
Unemployed residents in high-unemployment areas are provided guaranteed paid jobs through up to 15 three-year pilot programs, increasing local employment and incomes for low-income and jobless individuals.
Participants must be paid at or above local prevailing or collective-bargaining wage rates, protecting worker pay standards and reducing the risk of low-wage placements.
Participants receive benefits including health insurance comparable to FEHB and minimum paid family/sick leave, improving access to health coverage and leave for low-income workers and families.
The use of open-ended 'such sums as may be necessary' funding could materially increase federal spending and add to the deficit without explicit appropriation limits.
Limiting awards to 15 pilots with three-year terms restricts geographic scale and duration, leaving many high-unemployment communities (including rural and tribal areas) without access to the program.
Requirements that local governments provide detailed data, IT systems, and matching/leveraged funding may strain administrative capacity—especially in small jurisdictions—and deter participation.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by Bonnie Watson Coleman · Last progress February 12, 2026
Creates a Department of Labor–run pilot job guarantee program that will award competitive grants to up to 15 local or Tribal governments with very high unemployment to offer paid public jobs with wages, health insurance, leave, and other worker supports. It sets up a Treasury trust fund to pay grants, requires data reporting and independent audits and evaluations, and expands the Work Opportunity Tax Credit to include recent participants in the pilot; funding is authorized as “such sums as necessary.”