The exclusion of agricultural and domestic workers—predominantly African Americans—from the 1935 Social Security Act's unemployment insurance program is analyzed as a result of international policy diffusion rather than solely domestic racial politics.
This resource is a research paper examining the role of the public safety net in insuring job losers against income loss, analyzing which government programs provide financial support and how benefits vary based on pre-job loss income levels.
The Summer EBT Playbook offers states practical strategies, tools, and examples to effectively implement the new Summer EBT program, ensuring low-income children receive food benefits when school is out.
This guide consolidates learning and spotlights principles, insights, and emerging practices to guide municipal leaders and public-private partnerships interested in designing basic income programs that are ethical, equitable, rigorous, informative, and consequential for local, state and national policymaking.
This report explains how states can continue to voluntarily implement key Medicaid and CHIP eligibility and enrollment improvements—originally required by two federal rules—despite a ten-year moratorium enacted in July 2025 that blocks their mandatory enforcement
The Assessing Your WIC Certification Practices guide by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) provides state and local WIC agencies with a framework to evaluate and improve their certification and enrollment processes to enhance access and participation.
Michigan's UIA director, Julia Dale, is leading the agency through transition by prioritizing lived experience, hope, grit, and values. Virginia's SNAP Program Manager, Michele Thomas, highlighted the success of Sun Bucks, a summer EBT child nutrition program that fed over 700,000 kids in its first year.
This blog explains how the Rural Health Transformation Program—established under H.R. 1—will channel $50 billion over five years to states to support rural health care, and outlines how states can apply, qualify, and deploy funds strategically.
Association of State and Territorial Health Offices (ASTHO)
An in-depth report that examines how states use automated eligibility algorithms for home and community-based services (HCBS) under Medicaid and assesses their implications for access and fairness.
The Lost in the Labyrinth brief examines how fragmented early care and education (ECE) programs across the U.S. create challenges for families seeking services for young children.
This Urban Institute report explores the impact of benefit cliffs, plateaus, and trade-offs on families receiving public assistance, examining how changes in earnings affect access to essential benefits like SNAP, Medicaid, and housing subsidies.
