Chairman Ernst, Ranking Member Markey, and members of the Small Business Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Angela Rachidi, and I am a Senior Fellow in poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute. I have spent much of the past 20 years researching U.S. safety net programs for low-income families. I worked for the New York City Department of Social Services in various positions from 2002 through 2015, ending my time as the Deputy Commissioner for policy research. Since 2015 I have continued this work for the American Enterprise Institute or AEI.

Over the past two years, I have led a working group of policy experts and researchers focused on policy solutions to benefit cliffs. I use the term benefit cliffs to broadly describe situations where even a small increase in earnings or hours worked can trigger an abrupt loss of government assistance for working families. In some cases, the loss of government assistance can completely offset new earnings, making a family possibly worse off than before. Other times, the loss may only partially offset new earnings, but in both scenarios, the loss of benefits can influence people’s employment decisions. Some workers may rationally choose to work less than they otherwise would in the absence of government assistance. This harms both families by limiting their upward mobility and employers who rely on these employees.   

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