Sponsors (2)
Conditions federal funding on States procuring and using an automated platform that verifies "enhanced gross income" across many income sources, including transaction data, within one year.
Official title: Require an income identification and verification platform for certain Federal benefit funds, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 19, 2025 by James E. Banks · Last progress May 19, 2025
The bill aims to improve accuracy and integrity of means-tested benefits through a standardized, automated income-verification Platform — benefiting many recipients and administrators — but does so at the cost of implementation burdens, privacy and fairness risks, and potential harms to vulnerable households if data or algorithms are misused or rushed into service.
Low-income beneficiaries (including Medicaid and SNAP recipients and households with gig/self-employment income) will more often receive accurate benefit decisions because automated income verification — including consumer-permissioned deposit transaction data — captures income sources payroll/tax records miss and reduces eligibility errors and improper payments.
State governments and federal agencies gain a common, standardized income-verification platform and definition, reducing inconsistent determinations across programs and states and streamlining administration (fewer manual checks, more consistent policy application).
Programs could see reduced improper benefit payments and associated public expenditures by verifying applicant income earlier and more comprehensively, improving overall program integrity and potential fiscal savings.
State governments must procure and implement the Platform quickly (one-year deadline), creating substantial administrative and financial burdens and risking rushed IT procurements that divert funds from services and produce implementation errors or outages affecting benefit delivery.
Millions of applicants face heightened privacy and data-security risks because centralized collection and analysis of sensitive bank transaction data increases the chance of misuse, breaches, or intrusive data sharing.
Recipients risk wrongful denials or reduced benefits if automated matching or algorithms misclassify transactions or income, harming vulnerable households who depend on means-tested programs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires every State (including DC and territories) to acquire and use an "Enhanced Income Identification and Verification Platform" within one year as a condition of receiving federal funds for any federally funded program that uses income to determine eligibility or benefit amounts. The platform must perform automated, near‑real‑time data matching across a long list of income sources (wages, unemployment, Social Security, SSI, interest, rental, child support, cash assistance, payroll and transaction data, etc.), allow claimant review/attestation, and deduplicate income to avoid double‑counting. Definitions specify covered programs, a broad "enhanced gross income" concept, and what capabilities the platform must include.