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April 29, 2024
Measuring What Matters: Context and Recommendations to Improve Reporting on Unemployment Insurance
Key Points This report explores the unemployment insurance system’s current data and performance management practices, including features designed to inform policymakers and the public about deficiencies in the administration of…
April 26, 2024
Washington, District of Benefit Cliffs
As the welfare state expands while policymakers struggle to contain its costs, one unintended result is the creation of significant benefit cliffs. A little-noticed September 2023 report authored by Elias Ilin and Alvaro Sanchez…
April 18, 2024
The Real Story Behind Food Insecurity in the US
…and, unsurprisingly, federal lawmakers are using rising levels of food insecurity to advocate for expansions to federal government programs. Unfortunately, policymakers are conflating hunger and food insecurity – a subjective…
April 17, 2024
Fiscal Sanity Please, Senators
…over $34 trillion. Our debt to GDP ratio is over 97% and could hit unsustainable levels far sooner than official estimates think. Passing Wyden-Smith with an expanded RECA only compounds these problems. Federal policymakers…
April 8, 2024
We Still Don’t Know How Much Taxpayers Lost Due to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Fraud
…millions of independent contractors, the self-employed, and others never before eligible for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) checks. But in some of the worst policy choices of all time, lawmakers failed to…
March 28, 2024
An Early Look at the Child Tax Credit Changes in the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024
…responses. In the meantime, our early look at H.R. 7024’s changes to the CTC provides some initial evidence to policymakers as they consider the legislation’s merits. Read the full report….
March 26, 2024
Economic Characteristics of the Food Insecure
…correlate to household resources, offering policymakers an important metric to guide government assistance efforts. In this report, we examine the effectiveness of the food insecurity rate in identifying financially constrained…
March 25, 2024
Families Slip Back Into Poverty After Pandemic-Era Child Tax Credit Expires
Watch the full video here. During the pandemic, lawmakers dramatically, but temporarily, expanded the social safety net, including more money for families with children. The impacts of those changes are…
March 21, 2024
Sugary Beverage Consumption Among SNAP Recipients
…could improve health outcomes for low-income households. This is just the latest rejection by Washington policymakers of proposals designed to improve nutritional outcomes for SNAP participants. Despite opposition to restrictions…
March 11, 2024
How Many Forms of “Wage Insurance” Do We Need, Exactly?
…lookback policy as “a form of wage insurance,” recalling a program some liberal lawmakers proposed—and failed to enact—before the Great Recession. Authors affiliated with the liberal Center on Budget and…