All Research
Op-Ed
How Helpful Are Cash Payments to New Mothers Really?
…For policymakers, the critical question is whether unconditional cash assistance produces meaningful improvements for children. Regrettably, much of the research we have about Rx Kids, and guaranteed income pilots generally,…
Commentary
SNAP and Americans’ Health
…low-income individuals, policymakers need to act. Poor health can reduce employment opportunities, limit productivity, and impose significant emotional and social costs on families. These consequences can make it more difficult…
Commentary
The Medicaid Work Requirement’s Gambling Loophole
…through Medicaid expansion or certain state demonstration projects. Pregnant women, parents with a child under age 14, caretakers of individuals with disabilities, and various other populations are excluded. Congress allowed…
Blog Post
Welfare Reform and Its Discontents
…Welfare as We Knew It By the time PRWORA was enacted, momentum for welfare reform had been building for years. Policymakers and the public increasingly objected to a safety net…
Report
A Review of the Wide Variation Across States in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Benefit Funding
Abstract Federal lawmakers created major temporary unemployment benefit programs during the pandemic, which collectively distributed a record $700 billion to unemployed individuals nationwide. Little attention has been paid to wildly divergent…
Op-Ed
The Path Ahead for Welfare Reform
In the years since the landmark 1996 welfare reform law — which marks its 30th anniversary today — policymakers have missed opportunities to apply its lessons and expand its reach to…
Report
Wisconsin Childcare Subsidies, Regulations Fail for Families
…costs for families, policymakers often advocate for increased subsidies to providers or families. However, the effectiveness of this approach is undermined by evidence showing government assistance, including childcare funding, was a major…
Commentary
How Fixing SNAP’s Payment Error Rate Formula Would Change State Cost Shares
…in additional federal savings, illustrates the potential federal savings once the transition provisions no longer apply, starting with FY2027 payment error rates that determine FY2030 cost shares. As policymakers consider…
Op-Ed
The Ongoing Battle to Defend Welfare Reform
…for upper-income families) that didn’t depend on whether parents worked or not. In other words, policymakers should provide unconditional cash aid to low-income families without a work requirement attached, just…
Blog
The Misleading Narrative About the ‘Hollowing Out’ of the Middle Class
…movement into better-than-middle-class communities. And how does this change the dynamic for policymakers, Scott, given that this narrative is so much different that they’re hearing on a daily basis? That’s…
Op-Ed
Thirty Years Later, Welfare Reform Is Still a Model That Works
…the dole, including noncitizens, inmates, and drug addicts, yielding major and continuing savings for taxpayers. Policymakers and the public interested in more personal responsibility and work and less welfare dependence…
Op-Ed
Custody Courts’ Deadly Blind Spots
…reasons, especially when combined with a record of violence or threats, should not be ignored or pathologized with “treatment.” Lawmakers in New York are apparently fed up with the pattern…