Topic: Policy Analysis
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Measuring the True Cost of Economic Security
The article presents the True Cost of Economic Security (TCES) measure, showing that over half of U.S. families struggle to meet the comprehensive costs required to thrive, highlighting significant disparities based on family type, location, and race.
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Reducing Administrative Burdens: The U.S. Federal Government Framework
This brief outlines the U.S. federal government’s framework to identify, reduce, and address administrative burdens through a series of executive orders, legislative actions, and updated policies focused on improving customer experience and increasing access to government benefits.
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Seeding policy: Viral cash and the diverse trajectories of basic income in the United States
This article examines the concept of "viral cash" and suggests that the future growth of basic income programs will depend on advocacy networks rather than traditional policy diffusion across jurisdictions.
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Working with the Data You Already Have to Improve Benefits Delivery
This article demonstrates how states can improve public benefits delivery by leveraging existing data systems, even with limited data maturity.
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Community Navigators Can Increase Access to Unemployment Benefits and New Jobs While Building Worker Power
Evidence from the Maine Peer Workforce Navigator program shows that workers and government can benefit from well-designed community partnerships.
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Cutting Child Poverty in Half and More: Pandemic-Era Lessons From Child and Family Advocates and Organizers
This paper discusses the country’s chronic underinvestment in children and resulting outcomes, including new data on poverty rates among young children, is inextricable from the prospects of young children; and the remarkably comprehensive pandemic-era response policies, including which changes contributed most to reducing child poverty.
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Expanding Access to Tax Benefits, for Free
Expanding access to free tax assistance through virtual Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs can help low-income filers claim essential tax benefits without incurring preparation fees.
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The Impact of Benefits Cliffs and Asset Limits on Low-Wage Workers: New Evidence From a Nationally Representative Survey
This report presents new national survey data showing how benefits cliffs and asset limits negatively affect the economic mobility of low-wage workers in the U.S.
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2025 Kids Count Data Book
This provides a comprehensive look at child well-being across the U.S., ranking states and highlighting policy recommendations to improve outcomes for children.
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Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment Rules Lay Framework for Program Improvements States Can Still Adopt, Despite Moratorium
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
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Project Snapshot: Policy Rules Database
The Policy Rules Database (PRD), developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the National Center for Children in Poverty, consolidates complex rules for major U.S. federal and state benefit programs and tax policies into a standardized, easy-to-use format. This database allows researchers to model public assistance impacts, simulate policy changes, and analyze benefits cliffs across various household scenarios using common rules and language across different programming platforms.
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Cash Rules Everything Around Me: A Summary of Existing Research On Guaranteed Income
A literature review summarizing existing research on guaranteed income programs.