Introduced May 29, 2025 by Grace Meng · Last progress May 29, 2025
The bill greatly expands access to and affordability of menstrual products across many public settings—benefiting low-income people, students, incarcerated individuals, and workers—but does so at measurable federal and state cost and with significant administrative and implementation burdens that could produce uneven access.
Low-income people, students, incarcerated people, employees, visitors to federal buildings, and other people who menstruate will gain broad, free or covered access to menstrual products across settings (community programs, TANF supplements, schools, colleges, detention facilities, Medicaid, workplaces, and federal buildings).
Women and people who menstruate (especially low-income households) will pay less out-of-pocket for menstrual products because the bill exempts these items from sales tax and funds free provision in many settings.
Students and workers who menstruate are likely to miss fewer school or work days and face fewer productivity/education disruptions because of improved, reliable access to products.
Federal and state taxpayers will face new fiscal costs: multi-year federal appropriations, recurring grant funds, higher Medicaid spending to cover products, and lost state/local sales tax revenue.
State, local, and program administrators (including schools, colleges, correctional facilities, and vendors) will face significant implementation burdens — new reporting, procurement, certification, billing codes, and system updates.
Access will be uneven: variations in state program design, implementation delays (especially for Medicaid), competitive grant awards, and employer-size thresholds (100+ employees) mean many people could remain without reliable access.
Based on analysis of 22 sections of legislative text.
Expands federal funding and programs to provide free menstrual products across schools, colleges, prisons, Medicaid, federal buildings, and some workplaces, and bans state/local sales taxes on those products.
Provides broad, cross-cutting requirements, funding, and new benefits to increase free access to menstrual products across schools, colleges, Medicaid, federal buildings, prisons/detention facilities, and some workplaces. It raises and directs Social Services Block Grant funds and creates TANF competitive grants and higher-education grants to support distribution, while also banning state and local sales taxes on menstrual products. Requires states and specified grantees to distribute products to low-income menstruating people, obliges federal agencies to stock public restrooms, requires free on-demand access in correctional and detention settings (with grant conditions), adds menstrual products to Medicaid-covered items, and directs the Department of Labor to require employers with 100+ employees to provide free menstrual products.