America’s welfare programs were created with a noble purpose: to help those who needed them most — our seniors, individuals with disabilities, pregnant women and low-income families with children.
In recent years, though, these welfare programs have deviated from their original mission both by drift and by design. Millions of able-bodied adults have been added to the rolls in the past decade, primarily as a result of Medicaid expansion. Many of these recipients are working-age individuals without children who might remain on welfare for years. Some of them do not work at all or they work inconsistently throughout the year.
The increased share of welfare spending dedicated to able-bodied working-age adults distracts from what should be the focus of these programs: the truly needy.
This should not be the American way of welfare. That’s why we are joining efforts to require able-bodied adults (defined as adults who have not been certified as physically or mentally unfit to work), with some exceptions, to get jobs and calling on Congress to enact common-sense reforms into law. Congressional Republicans have already put forward new or revised work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps in the reconciliation package and much-needed tax relief for Americans in The One, Big, Beautiful Bill.
As leaders of the agencies that oversee the largest welfare programs in the nation — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid and federal housing assistance, among others — we see the data, hear the stories and understand that these programs are failing to deliver results. For able-bodied adults, welfare should be a short-term hand-up, not a lifetime handout.
But too many able-bodied adults on welfare are not working at all. And too often we don’t even ask them to. For many, welfare is no longer a lifeline to self-sufficiency but a lifelong trap of dependency.
A recent analysis from an economist at the American Enterprise Institute examined survey data from December 2022 (the most recent month available) and found that just 44 percent of able-bodied, working-age Medicaid beneficiaries without dependents worked at least 80 hours in that month.
Establishing universal work requirements for able-bodied adults across the welfare programs we manage will prioritize the vulnerable, empower able-bodied individuals, help rebuild thriving communities and protect the taxpayers. That’s why a majority of Americans support work requirements — polling shows that 60 to 80 percent of all Americans support work requirements in Medicaid, for instance. Even Joe Biden as a senator supported work requirements for welfare.
The good news is that history shows us that work requirements work.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton and the speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, joined forces to enact bipartisan welfare reform with a work requirement at the heart of it. The results were astounding. As early as 1997, economists attributed a measurable increase in the national labor force participation rate and a decrease in dependency to welfare reform. That reform — combined with a strong economy and expanded tax credits for low-income workers — led to a steady decrease in rates of child poverty in the late 1990s. Today, the share of kids living in poverty is a quarter lower than it was in 1996. The 1996 welfare reform was so successful that Barack Obama, when he ran for president in 2008, admitted that he had been wrong about it.
Our agencies are united in a very straightforward policy approach: able-bodied adults receiving benefits must work, participate in job training or volunteer in their communities at least 20 hours a week. Limited exceptions will be made for good cause, like caring for young children and health issues, but the principle is clear — those who can work, should.
Some will argue that work requirements create barriers to resources. We disagree. We believe that welfare dependency, not work, is the barrier. There are millions of open jobs around the country, with more on the way as President Trump’s job-creation policies are fully implemented. And if someone can’t find one of those millions of open jobs, he or she can meet the work requirement through job training or volunteering part time.
This is about opportunity. We believe that work is transformative for the individual who moves from welfare to employment.
Yes, it is true that a work requirement protects taxpayer dollars as it provides income to the worker and lessens dependence on government funding. But it is not just about money. Work also provides purpose and dignity. It strengthens families and communities as it gives new life to start-ups and growing businesses. It provides an example to our next generation. And studies have shown that work can improve physical and mental health.
Work requirements will also give new life to America’s welfare programs, which are breaking under the weight of misplaced priorities. Our policy is reasonable and will protect welfare for the truly needy while improving the trajectory of millions of families — and of our federal government.
At the Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development, we are ready to implement work requirements. As we do so, we will work hand in hand with Congress, states, communities and individuals to make this vision a permanent reality. The benefits are clear: stronger economies and a renewed sense of purpose for millions of Americans.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the U.S. secretary of health and human services. Dr. Mehmet Oz is the administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Brooke Rollins is the secretary of agriculture. Scott Turner is the secretary of housing and urban development.
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