States are now in the process of preparing to implement parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which achieved some of the most significant pro-work reforms to America’s social welfare system in decades. Elevating work and self-reliance in food stamps and Medicaid is essential, but it’s only a first step. Congress and the president must now embrace state innovation to lead America into a new era of reform that reduces government dependence, supercharges upward mobility, and strengthens the American dream.
The bill creates work requirements for a targeted subset of able-bodied Medicaid participants and expands similar requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — still focused on work-capable adults. Work-based self-reliance has been the aspirational goal of the American social safety net since its inception, so such reforms, and the broader discussion about the core purpose of these programs, are long overdue.
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These successful reforms are just one component in transforming our nation’s safety net into a true springboard to independence. To achieve comprehensive reform, Congress and the administration should take concrete steps to strengthen the ability of states to act as innovators across all programs in the social welfare system.
For decades, Utah has been the only state to integrate public assistance and employment services under one state agency. This coveted “one-door” model has helped our state to recover from recessions quickly, reduced reliance on government programs, and improved the ability of struggling families to get back on their feet and pursue the American dream.
Because of this structure and Utah’s culture of work and self-reliance, we were already pursuing Medicaid work requirements before the OBBBA passed.
Despite Utah’s unique and lauded approach to welfare and workforce programs and our ranking as the No. 1 state for upward mobility, we recognize there are still too many families in Utah who strive for independence yet struggle to escape poverty, which means we must do more to address the challenges they face. We are continually working to improve social welfare programs to help our citizens escape poverty and enjoy the full blessings of our free enterprise system.
During the 2025 legislative session, Utah lawmakers created and funded a $6 million Temporary Assistance for Needy Families pilot program to strengthen opportunities for struggling families.
The Utah Navigation and Financial Planning for Self-Reliance pilot project is a response to the growing local and national recognition that far too many families on the social safety net, at times, limit their earned income out of fear of triggering a “benefit cliff effect,” where earning more can actually make families worse off or stuck in the same place.
This pilot will help these families navigate the transition from welfare to work-based self-reliance through enhanced financial planning resources and community mentoring. It will also collect robust data to help lay the foundation for future reforms at the state and federal levels.
But more needs to be done in Utah, in other states, and at the federal level to further improve the social welfare system to support true upward mobility. And the best ideas to achieve those changes won’t all come from Washington. That’s why Washington should remove obstacles that slow state-led innovation. It can do so in four specific ways.
First, the administration should expeditiously approve any state waiver request to test innovative approaches to boosting work and addressing poverty using existing statutory authority — provided it’s structured in a fiscally responsible and pro-work way.
Second, Congress should pass legislation that streamlines waiver requests and reporting requirements for states, easing the administrative burden of pursuing new ideas while maintaining accountability.
Third, Congress should grant expanded pilot program authority for states seeking to eliminate work disincentives such as benefit cliffs, streamline or consolidate programs, or otherwise refine programs to increase employment and self-reliance. A good place to start is building on the administration’s redesigned TANF pilots, to further equip states to test new approaches to supporting work and opportunity across all programs in our nation’s social welfare system.
Fourth, Congress and the administration should work with states to explore elevated and expanded use of block grants and other forms of state flexibility when funding and administering programs. When designed correctly, such an approach can give states more power to innovate while avoiding new burdensome administrative regulations.
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This is a unique moment in our nation’s long-running war on poverty. We applaud the OBBBA’s inclusion of work-centric additions to two of the nation’s largest safety net programs, and we believe state-led innovation is essential to building on these successes.
This Congress and president have the opportunity to usher in a new era of social welfare reform that will help millions more families move from assistance to independence. Many states, such as Utah, stand ready to be part of that new era, and Congress has just taken the first step.
Aimee Winder Newton is a senior adviser to Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) and director of the Utah Office of Families. Tyler Clancy is a member of the Utah House of Representatives. Nic Dunn is the vice president of strategy and a senior fellow at the Sutherland Institute.