Sponsors (3)
The bill tests consolidating multiple antipoverty programs into flexible, per-capita grants to improve upward mobility and simplify benefits for participants, but limits participation to a few States and raises access, equity, administrative, and transition risks that could reduce participation and slow wider adoption.
Low-income individuals and families (including parents) can receive a consolidated, per-capita Upward Mobility Grant that combines SNAP, TANF, child care, LIHEAP, housing, and other supports into a single flexible payment.
Participating States can design benefit structures that reduce benefit cliffs and limit Marginal Effective Tax Rates, which could increase recipients' work incentives, employment, and earnings.
Pilot projects require rigorous independent evaluation, producing evidence about which integrated approaches improve upward mobility and informing potential broader policy adoption.
Individuals enrolled in a State pilot cannot receive Federal antipoverty program benefits outside the pilot during the pilot period, which may reduce access to existing program options for participants.
Limiting the initiative to at most five States restricts how many people can access consolidated benefits, slows learning and scaling if pilots succeed, and delays broader national impact.
Consolidation and broad waiver authority could create substantial variation in eligibility rules and benefit levels across States, producing unequal treatment and administrative complexity for beneficiaries who move.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Allows pilot consolidation and flexible use of specified federal antipoverty funds and requires proportional transfers of administrative funding and transferred functions to a designated Administration.
Official title: Establish a pilot program in which States may use consolidated funds, through Upward Mobility Grants, for antipoverty programs, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 6, 2026 by Jon Husted · Last progress January 6, 2026
Allows participating States (and certain public housing agencies and families) to pool and flexibly use federal antipoverty funds from programs like SNAP, TANF, child care, LIHEAP, workforce, community development, and certain housing programs in pilot projects, and creates transfer/administrative rules for those pilots. Establishes definitions, creates or empowers an Administration within HHS (acting through the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families) to receive transferred functions, staff, assets, and unexpended balances, and directs OMB and agency heads to effect proportional transfers of administrative funding and related responsibilities to carry out the pilots. Sets rules for how federal agencies must calculate and transfer administrative funds to States in pilot years (based on prior-year shares), how OMB will designate transferred functions, and authorizes the new Administration to delegate, reorganize, and issue regulations; transferred unexpended funds remain limited to their original authorized purposes.