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.
