Sponsors (3)
The bill centralizes and pilots consolidated antipoverty supports to simplify access and test integrated approaches aimed at improving work incentives and outcomes, but concentrates experimentation in a few states and gives states discretion and waiver authority that could reduce benefits, weaken protections, and cause service disruptions if poorly designed or managed.
Low-income individuals and families (especially parents) would receive consolidated Upward Mobility Grants that simplify access to nutrition, cash, child care, housing, and energy assistance, reducing administrative complexity for beneficiaries.
Participants in pilot states may face lower marginal effective tax rates (fewer benefit cliffs), improving incentives to increase earnings and employment.
Participants in pilot states (low-income individuals and parents) would gain access to state tests of more integrated services (workforce training, child care, housing, energy assistance) designed to increase employment, earnings, and skill development.
Individuals in participating pilot states cannot receive separate Federal benefits for covered antipoverty programs outside the pilot, which risks reducing access if a pilot is more restrictive than existing programs.
Consolidation could allow states to prioritize cost savings, potentially reducing per-capita direct assistance and lowering benefits for some low-income households in pilot states.
Waivers that allow states to alter eligibility and program rules could weaken beneficiary protections or reduce benefits for vulnerable populations (including people with disabilities) unless explicitly barred.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 6, 2026 by Blake D. Moore · Last progress January 6, 2026
Creates a five-state, five-year pilot that lets participating states combine many federal antipoverty funding streams into one capped annual grant to design local “upward mobility” programs (work supports, benefit cliff reduction, housing, child care, energy assistance, nutrition, training). The pilot includes broad waiver authority, quarterly payments tied to prior-year funding adjusted for inflation, strict application and evaluation requirements, and limits on receiving the same federal funds outside the pilot. It also moves specified federal antipoverty functions, personnel, assets, and related authorities into the Administration for Children and Families at HHS and requires agencies to transfer related administrative resources during a transition.