This bill creates a five-year pilot program called Upward Mobility Grants. Up to 5 States may apply to combine Federal funding from certain antipoverty programs (for example: SNAP, TANF, child care block grants, LIHEAP, some workforce and community development and housing funds) into a single grant. Participating States may design new benefit structures that aim to reduce "benefit cliffs" and increase employment and earnings for participants. Grants are calculated from the State's covered Federal amounts in the prior fiscal year, adjusted by the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, and are paid quarterly. A State may run a full or a limited-scope pilot (limited scope can be 10–100 percent of the full grant).
The Secretary of Health and Human Services may waive many statutory or regulatory requirements for the included antipoverty programs for the pilot, but waivers may not remove program goals, civil rights protections, health and safety rules, labor standards, environmental protections, immigration eligibility limits, religious freedom protections, appropriations restrictions, maintenance-of-effort rules, or requirements to forward funds to sub-State entities. Funds tied to certain housing programs must continue to go to the same local recipients as under current law. During the pilot, a State generally may not also receive separate Federal funding for those antipoverty programs outside the pilot, and pilot participants generally cannot receive duplicate benefits from those programs outside the pilot. The bill allows emergency or contingency funding exceptions in certain conditions.
States must include strong program integrity steps, data protections, and an independent, third-party evaluator. The evaluator must report annually on a set of "upward mobility measures," including Marginal Effective Tax Rates on earnings gains, employment and earnings outcomes, reductions in per-capita direct assistance, changes in marriage penalties, and reductions in poverty among participants. SNAP work-related rules apply to direct assistance benefit recipients in the pilot, subject to necessary regulatory changes and audits by the Secretary. The bill also authorizes certain administrative transfers of functions and proportional transfers of administrative funding to States and to the Administration for Children and Families to manage the pilot.
If your State chooses and is approved for the pilot (only up to 5 States will be allowed), some Federal antipoverty funds could be combined into one State-run program for up to five years. People enrolled in the pilot could see different benefit rules, new work requirements, and changes to how nutrition, cash, child care, energy, housing, or employment services are delivered. Participants generally could not also receive the same Federal benefits outside the pilot during that time, except in certain emergencies or contingency situations. The program requires data collection and independent evaluation to measure whether the new benefit structures increase work and earnings and reduce reliance on per-capita direct assistance.
The bill sets how grant amounts are calculated but does not set an overall Federal appropriation total. Key funding mechanics in the bill:
The bill states its purposes as streamlining service delivery, reducing inconsistent eligibility rules and benefit cliffs, promoting upward mobility through better employment and earnings, and providing incentives for States to reduce dependence on per-capita direct assistance by improving employment outcomes.
No publicly available information.