Millions of people could lose health coverage when the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ends — possibly later this year — and states resume their regular eligibility reviews of all Medicaid enrollees. But massive coverage losses aren’t inevitable. States now have at least five additional months to prepare and should take steps now to ensure that eligible individuals remain on Medicaid and to help those no longer eligible for Medicaid transition to other coverage.

A new proposal would increase the number of families in every state who can afford child care, improve the quality of child care in every state, and establish a pilot program so that some states can test how to create a more robust system.

This brief simulates how three levels of SNAP average benefit increases — 20 percent, 27 percent, and 40 percent — could impact food spending and diet quality.

New research finds that increasing SNAP benefits is expected to increase low-income households’ spending on food prepared at home and improve the nutritional quality of the foods purchased, with slightly larger positive effects for households with children.

Studies demonstrate, over and over again, that poverty harms children’s development and that providing families with low incomes with financial resources can improve children’s development,...

Various laws, regulations, and guidance that federal policymakers put in place since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have expanded access to testing, vaccination, and treatment for the virus. This fact sheet summarizes these provisions and explains how the federal government, the states, and private health care providers can implement them so that all people can get the care they need.

In the Senate, reconciliation bills aren’t subject to filibuster and the scope of amendments is limited, giving this process real advantages for enacting controversial budget and tax measures.

States are taking steps to advance environmental protection and environmental justice using flexible State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (FRF) provided through the American Rescue Plan. With a...

SSI benefits are critical for those who need them, but SSI is woefully out of date.

The Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022’s key provisions, which would expand the federal tax subsidies for retirement saving, mainly help people with higher incomes and financially secure retirements — who benefit the most from existing subsidies — and would do little for people with low and moderate incomes, who have much more pressing needs.

As states make decisions about how to allocate the rest of their recovery funds, they should make investments that center racial and economic equity to support the people and communities hardest hit by the pandemic and help ensure a widespread and equitable recovery.

This page contains links to resources and fact sheets organized by state.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, reaching 38 million people nationwide in 2019 alone. These...

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) was billed by its supporters as an effort to improve cash assistance recipients’ employment opportunities. Instead, it laid the foundation for states to perpetuate racist ideas that have dominated cash assistance programs since their inception.

Housing should remain a priority as states consider using the remainder of their Fiscal Recovery Funds.

Social Security benefits play a vital role in reducing poverty in every state.  Without Social Security, 22.1 million more Americans would be poor.

The Child Tax Credit, especially when received monthly, has an important role to play in addressing the income volatility that many families face.

President Biden’s 2023 budget calls for a range of policies that would boost opportunity and reduce poverty, improve health and well-being, and advance widely shared prosperity.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, created in 1996, provides temporary financial assistance to few families below the poverty line — including those with no other means...

Understanding which policies states have implemented can help federal policymakers update those program rules.