Sponsors (4)
The bill enables states to run multi-year, per-capita anti-poverty pilots with stable funding and strong evaluations to streamline services and test improved employment outcomes, but it shifts control to states and centralizes administration in ways that risk reduced targeting, limited beneficiary options, tribal exclusion, transitional disruptions, and potential oversight gaps.
Low-income individuals in participating states can receive coordinated, per-person direct assistance across nutrition, housing, energy, child care, and cash through 5-year pilot programs while states test integrated models intended to reduce benefit cliffs and improve employment and earnings.
State governments receive predictable, multi-year pilot funding calculations plus proportional administrative funding tied to prior-year program shares, helping cover the costs of operating pilots and providing funding stability for 5-year demonstrations.
Independent third-party evaluations and rigorous evidence standards increase the chance that successful anti-poverty models are identified and can be scaled, improving future program effectiveness.
Low-income individuals enrolled in a State pilot cannot simultaneously access the same categorical antipoverty benefits outside the pilot for the 5-year period, limiting recipients' options and potentially reducing access to needed services.
Shifting multiple categorical funds into state-controlled consolidated pilots gives states greater discretion to redesign eligibility (including imposing work requirements) and may reduce funding targeted to specific needs (e.g., rental vs. utility aid), which could cause some participants—especially people with disabilities, renters, and other vulnerable groups—to lose benefits or face harmful/tr
Excluding tribal-directed funds and forbidding waivers that affect tribal funding means tribal members and tribal programs are not included in pilots, creating uneven access to services within states and perpetuating gaps for indigenous communities.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Allows participating States to consolidate specified federal antipoverty funding streams and shifts administration of pilot functions to the Administration for Children and Families with pro rata administrative funding transfers.
Introduced January 6, 2026 by Blake D. Moore · Last progress January 6, 2026
Creates a federal pilot framework that lets States combine many separate federal "antipoverty" program dollars into a single pool to use for coordinated anti-poverty services and moves administration of those pilot functions into the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). It defines which federal funding streams count as consolidatable "covered amounts," sets rules excluding funds directed to Indian tribes, and requires covered federal agencies to transfer proportional administrative funding to support States running pilots. Shifts certain agency functions to ACF for participating States, authorizes OMB to identify which functions transfer, and gives the HHS Secretary authority to reorganize, reassign personnel and assets, and prescribe implementing rules to effect the transition while preserving existing authorities, contracts, and obligations during the changeover.