The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and its induced recession underscored the crucial importance of unemployment insurance (UI) to workers, and to the stability of the American economy. Temporary federal expansions of unemployment systems during the pandemic showed how they can quickly be scaled to increase benefit levels and to include categories of workers who were not previously eligible, such as the self-employed, caregivers, and low-wage workers. And, states showed that separate programs can be set up to provide similar benefits to workers who are explicitly excluded from unemployment insurance—in particular immigrants who do not have a documented immigration status.
This book is an in-depth exploration of federal programs and controversial legislation demonstrating that administrative burden has long existed in policy design, preventing citizens from accessing fundamental rights. Further discussion of how policymakers can minimize administrative burden to reduce inequality, boost civic engagement, and build an efficient state.
Digitizing public benefits policy will make the biggest impact for administrators and Americans, but only if it happens at the highest level of government.
These guidelines from the National Institutes of Standard and Technology provide technical requirements for federal agencies implementing digital identity services.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Building modular, open-source, human-centered software is necessary to create equitable government services fit for the digital age. Nava emphasizes addressing large scale digital service challenges by building and releasing small, modular software components that are loosely-coupled by well-defined APIs. This enables agencies to quickly and conistently deliver services that help people immediately, whilst also building a flexible foundation for long-term technical evolution.
This article describes the General Services Administration’s efforts to get a limited number of state and local governments to try login.gov with their federally funded programs.
This landscape analysis examines data, design, technology, and innovation-enabled approaches that make it easier for eligible people to enroll in, and receive, federally-funded social safety net benefits, with a focus on the earliest adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Artificial intelligence promises exciting new opportunities for the government to make policy, deliver services and engage with residents. But government procurement practices need to adapt if we are to ensure that rapidly-evolving AI tools meet intended purposes, avoid bias, and minimize risks to people, organizations, and communities. This report lays out five distinct challenges related to procuring AI in government.
This Blueprint is a whole-of-government effort that aims to provide a resource to assist federal decisionmakers in leveraging social and behavioral science to improve policy and program design and delivery.
The Advancing Economic Mobility for Low-Income Families report, published by the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices, provides policy options for governors to strengthen economic security, workforce participation, and wealth-building opportunities for low-income families.
