March 25, 2026
Opportunity Book: A New Tool for Connecting Policymakers with Innovative Ideas
Today the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is…
March 16, 2026
Time Limits and Work Requirements Would Improve Subsidized Housing Programs
Despite more than $60 billion in annual federal spending on rental assistance, only one in…
January 22, 2026
The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Should Not Subsidize Stay-at-Home Parents
Last week, the Republican Study Committee released a legislative framework intended to make the American…
November 25, 2025
Congress Should Restore Local Autonomy Over Homeless Aid
The Trump administration recently announced a major shift to the scoring rubric for the federal…
May 20, 2025
The Share of Medicaid Recipients in Compliance with the House Bill’s Community Engagement Requirement
The reconciliation proposal approved by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in 2025 would impose community engagement requirements on nondisabled, working-age Medicaid recipients without dependent children, requiring at least 80 hours per month of work, training, education, or community service during a specified number of months to maintain eligibility. Analysis using Survey of Income and Program Participation data indicates that, as of December 2022, 44–60 percent of the 18.2 million recipients subject to the requirement would already be in compliance, depending on how many months of participation states require. As a result, 7.3 million–10.3 million recipients would need to increase their work or other qualifying activities to retain Medicaid coverage.
April 25, 2025
A Baby Bonus Is the Wrong Response to Declining Fertility
The Trump Administration is reportedly considering ways to reverse declining fertility in the United States,…
January 21, 2025
President Trump’s USDA Should Fix Food Stamp Work Requirement Waivers
A 2019 regulation would tighten the criteria states use to waive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents. Under existing policy, states can qualify for waivers using several broad criteria and can group contiguous areas together, allowing many counties to receive waivers even when unemployment rates are relatively low. Using county-level data from 1997 to 2023, simulations show that the 2019 rule would substantially reduce waiver eligibility, increase the responsiveness of waivers to changes in local unemployment, and better target waivers to areas with the weakest labor markets.
December 30, 2024
What’s Behind the Unprecedented Rise in Homelessness, and How Can We Reverse It?
The annual United States homeless population estimates for 2024 were released last week. Homelessness grew…
September 19, 2024
Government Benefit Programs Already Do a Lot to Help Low Income Families
Politicians, policy analysts, and advocates have proposed increasing the generosity of the Child Tax Credit…
March 4, 2024
Social Conservatives Who Care About Marriage Should Think Twice About a “Per-Child” Refundable Child Tax Credit
The United States Senate is currently debating H.R. 7024, a House-passed bill that would modify…
February 27, 2024
Options for Improving the Child Tax Credit Provisions in H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024
H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, passed the…
January 31, 2024
The Wyden-Smith Child Tax Credit and Work: Responding to Critics
The Wyden-Smith tax bill under consideration in the House has rekindled a debate about the…